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After 17 years as editor of the Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, it's time for me to pass the torch. At the time you're reading this last commentary, I'll have been retired for several weeks from my positions as director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Brown University Medical School and academic director at Bradley Hospital. I finished my child psychiatry training...
In the past several months, I've had the opportunity to learn more about the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), due to the fact that I accepted an invitation to join their advisory board. Previously, I had been generally aware of the organization's existence and activities, but my recent immersion has led me to conclude that, when it comes to children's mental health, the NCTSN is a...
I was surprised and pleased to read an article in the June 2017 issue of Pediatrics (“10‐Year Trends in Bullying and Related Attitudes Among 4th to 12th Graders”) that reported declining prevalence of bullying in schools. This impressive work by Tracy Evian Waasdorp and colleagues surveyed an average of almost 25,000 students in elementary, middle, and high schools in Maryland every year for 10 years...
At a recent social gathering, I mentioned in passing that I thought infant mental health was an extremely important area. Another guest at the event, perhaps fueled by a second glass of wine, launched into what I'm sure he considered a hilarious comic routine having to do with babies getting psychoanalyzed. The underlying point was that the whole concept of caring about the psychological health of...
Examine (1) the extent to which changes in objectively measured asthma-related lung function (forced expiratory volume in 1 second) within a sleep period are associated with sleep quality and sleep duration during that sleep period in a group of urban children with persistent asthma, (2) associations between morning and evening asthma-related lung function and sleep quality and duration on the adjacent...
On any given day, over 400,000 children and adolescents in the United States are removed from their families by social welfare agencies. Who cares for these children and where they live is remarkably variable from state to state. The Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) tracks these data, and their publications shine needed light on policies that have a huge impact on this group of very vulnerable kids.
The placebo response fascinates me. Everyone agrees that it exists, but consensus stops there. People disagree as to whether it has a physiological basis or is purely psychological. They argue about whether to view it as a powerful clinical tool or the essence of clinical empiricism or a darn nuisance that confounds everything. There is also disagreement about whether it's ethical to intentionally...
I recently had the opportunity to learn more about the National Mental Health Association — now called Mental Health America — which caused me to reflect on the progress we have made in the United States regarding the treatment of the mentally ill. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island (an affiliate of Mental Health America), where I was the recipient...
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of scientific reports providing evidence for the effectiveness of a variety of mental health treatments for patients of all ages. A thorough review of the literature and the hundreds of well‐designed randomized clinical trials evaluating various interventions could reasonably lead one to the conclusion that this is the golden age of evidence‐based...
It's self‐evident that the more complicated a child's presenting problems are, the more critical it is to have the combined expertise of a multidisciplinary team applied to the case. Everyone is aware of how the tremendous expansion of all the sciences in recent decades means that no single individual or discipline can encompass all the knowledge relevant to helping a particular child. Complex developmental...
Whenever I travel abroad, I am invariably impressed by the language abilities of adults and children in whatever country I'm visiting. In a recent trip to Argentina, I enjoyed the opportunity to use my rudimentary Spanish, but usually the conversation shifted pretty quickly to English because whomever I was speaking with was much more fluent in English than I was in Spanish. A number of such experiences...
During a recent episode of procrastinating on the Internet, I came across an advertisement for Thudguard, a protective helmet for babies learning to walk. I'm not making this up: its motto is “You take the first step and protect your toddler's brain.” It turns out that not only does a walking helmet for normal toddlers exist, but Thudguard has a lot of competition on eBay.
One of the most remarkable changes in our society over the past 15 years has been the dramatic and widespread liberalization of mainstream Americans' views on homosexuality. The statistics on public opinion regarding same‐sex marriage are indicative: in 2001, Pew reported 35% in favor of gay marriage and 57% opposed. By 2015, the pattern was essentially reversed, with 55% supporting and only 39% opposing...
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