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Monthly Archives: June 2013
Is Oppositional Defiant Disorder a description or a diagnosis?
My problem with the diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is that establishing the diagnosis doesn’t tell you anything about what to do to treat it. Consider it a “lite” version of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder without the severe, protracted tantrums or meltdowns.
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Does the DSM-5 harm bright kids with learning disabilities?
Given the outsized role these conditions play in children’s mental health, the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for specific learning disorder represent a major fail for the field. Continue reading
DSM-5: Recognizing the signs of trauma in kids
Most importantly for the sake of our discussion, the symptom thresholds for establishing a diagnosis in children and teens have been changed to take into account differences in the ways that trauma is manifested in kids, and a unique set of diagnostic criteria have been established for identification of PTSD in kids ages six and under.
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Posted in Controversies, Mental Health, Resources
Tagged AACAP, Adoption, children, children's ministry, diagnostic criteria, dsm-5, Foster Care, Inclusion, Key Ministry, mental health, PTSD
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): A category unto itself…
Some of the conditions included in this new category (in addition to OCD) include…Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Hoarding Disorder, Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder) and Excoriation (skin-picking) Disorder. Continue reading
Posted in Controversies, Families, Hidden Disabilities, Mental Health
Tagged Body Dysmorphic Disorder, dsm-5, Hoarding, OCD, Skin-Picking Disorder, Trichotillomania
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Ten Questions About Kids and Medication Lecture CANCELED. Here’s the alternate plan…
Since there was lots of interest in the topic of frequently asked questions about kids and medication , I’ll cover each of the questions I’d planned to address during the lecture in a blog series we’ll run through July, following our current series on the changes in diagnostic criteria included in the DSM-5. Continue reading
Posted in Controversies, Families, Key Ministry, Mental Health, Resources
Tagged kids, lecture, medications, Parents, psychiatry, teens
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Why the decision to eliminate Asperger’s Disorder was absurd…
From a clinician’s standpoint, kids with Asperger’s are VERY different from kids with “classic” autism. Kids with Asperger’s have the intelligence and language skills to very effectively communicate their thoughts and perceptions. They also have a far greater capacity for self-awareness of their social deficits…and are far more amenable to treatment interventions to ameliorate their weaknesses in social situations. They’re so different that the vast preponderance of kids with traditional autism in our community receiving medical intervention are seen by developmental pediatricians and pediatric neurologists, not child psychiatrists. Continue reading
Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder…not quite Asperger’s
SCD has become the diagnostic category for kids who look like those with Asperger’s Disorder, but don’t meet full criteria for an autism spectrum disorder.
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