Pediatric Psychiatry In NYC Is An Essential Service

By Nelda Powers


Services of the branch of medicine called pediatric psychiatry in NYC is widely used. This specialty treats patients from early childhood on up through adolescence. Children can be subject to the same mental disorders that afflict adults. They may go undiagnosed because parents do not expect them to develop in children.

Nearly five million children are affected by a mental illness that impacts the normal course of their lives. Twenty percent are stricken on a yearly basis. It is definitely more of a problem than most people realize.

Mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and clinical depression require prescription medication to stabilize them. It is more challenging to try to diagnose the youngest children. They do not always have the vocabulary to fully express their feelings. A teen may act crazy although he is just being a teen.

A child may not seem dysfunctional while at home. He may have problems getting along in school and with friends. Or, the opposite may be true. Sometimes the child will speak openly with a school counselor and the dysfunctional behavior will be discovered.

It takes eleven or twelve years of higher education to become a licensed psychiatrist. For a specialty such as pediatric psychiatry, additional time is needed. He goes through medical school and can thus prescribe the medicine a child needs to keep his condition controlled.

Children with a mental disorder need the best possible combination of medication and talk therapy, as counseling is sometimes called. It is not difficult to diagnose one disorder and that is the disruptive behavior condition. This child is a troublemaker, not quiet and disturbs the normal routine at school.

The developmentally disordered child finds the world surrounding him difficult to understand. He has a confused state of mind that makes everything difficult for him. Those with anxiety disorders are fearful and nervous.

Teen girls and some boys develop anorexia nervosa, a serious eating disorder. Bulimia is seen in combination with this. A schizophrenic child has disordered and sometimes psychotic thoughts. Mood disorder, for example clinical depression or bipolar disorder, do require medication.

A psychiatrist may have an office if he is in private practice. He may provide therapy there and inpatient care in a hospital or residential treatment center. Other health care professionals may work with him.

There is a reference book psychiatrists rely on to help in making diagnoses. It is published by The American Psychiatric Association for this purpose. If a child has a certain number of the symptoms that indicate a mental illness, it is an indication that he is suffering from it. Young children are not verbal enough to accurately describe their feelings. It may be challenging, but making an accurate diagnosis is integral to effective treatment.

An effective care plan may include more than one component. It may be prescription medication and psychotherapy, which is often called talk therapy. Discussing feelings may aid the child in understanding what is causing problems in his life. It may help him learn to deal with it.

The practitioner of pediatric psychiatry in NYC uses the lowest possible dose of medicine that will produce the desired improvement. In case of a bipolar illness he may have to try several before the optimal one is found. Attention deficit disorder is diagnosed and medicated in many cases that do not meet the DSM criteria for that medical disorder.




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