Treatment Is Available In Pediatric Psychiatry In NYC

By Nelda Powers


Many families require help from the medical practitioners of pediatric psychiatry in NYC. These doctors treat young children and teenagers. The same mental illnesses that affect adults can also befall children. It is harder for the parents and teachers to notice since children are always changing as a part of the natural growth they are going through.

However, it is more prevalent than one would expect. In the US there are almost five million children who have a mental illness serious enough to significantly impact their lives. Each year twenty percent of all kids in the US are affected.

There are physical components to many mental disorders. Some examples are heredity and chemistry of the brain. It is just hard to diagnose them. The actions of a teen may appear to be indicative of mental illness. In many cases, the teen is just acting out due to going through a difficult stage of life.

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 child who has a developmental delay perceives the world as a confusing place. He has a difficult time understanding what goes on around him. In the case of an anxiety disorder, a child may appear nervous and afraid of many things.

Eating disorders are usually found in teen age girls. Being anorexic or bulimic is not unusual. The child with schizophrenia has thoughts that are disordered. Mood disorders include depression and bipolar illness.

Young patients receive outpatient care in the office of the child psychiatrist. He may also work in a clinic or hospital. He works in conjunction with other professionals such as psychologists and social workers.

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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