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Category Archives: Controversies
The “R-word” has been banished…new criteria for intellectual disability
The most important change in the new criteria involves a decrease in the emphasis upon intelligence tests in the classification of intellectual disability in favor of a severity of impairment classification based upon adaptive functioning along with intelligence testing. Continue reading
First impressions of the DSM-5
The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever. Indeed, symptom-based diagnosis, once common in other areas of medicine, has been largely replaced in the past half century as we have understood that symptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment. Continue reading
Posted in Controversies, Mental Health
Tagged children, Dr. Thomas Insel, dsm-5, families, first impressions, mental health, NIMH, psychiatry, teens
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Commentary…CDC reports 20% of high school boys diagnosed with ADHD
The study also reports that 15% of boys have been diagnosed with ADHD, and that nearly 20% of high school boys (along with 10% of high school girls) have received an ADHD diagnosis and one in every ten high school boys currently takes medication for ADHD. Continue reading
Are teens “undermedicated” for mental health disorders?
There is very little evidence in this study to suggest that large numbers of teens are getting psychiatric medications that they don’t need. Continue reading
Is our system for treating persons with ADHD broken? Or is our society broken?
Our current model of caring for people with mental health disorders is in a near state of collapse. Sadly, I have little hope of the situation getting better and fear things are going to get much worse. What I found unsettling about this story is how accurately it represents the service delivery system that kids and families enter into when they leave our practice. Continue reading
Posted in ADHD, Advocacy, Controversies, Families
Tagged addiction, ADHD, broken, mental health system, New York Times, psychiatry, Richard Fee, society, stimulants
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Depression…Challenges in serving kids with an episodic disability
The first people in a church likely to suspect a problem will be the youth pastor or a small group leader when they notice an often abrupt change in the pattern of involvement of a teen suffering from depression. Unlike the other conditions we’ve discussed since launching the blog, in the absence of another mental health condition or a parent with a disability, I’d hypothesize kids with depression wouldn’t be any less likely to start attending church…they’ll have difficulty staying involved with church once symptomatic. Continue reading
Mental Illness and Mass Murder: Reflections From a Christian…and a Psychiatrist
Efforts to address the danger present in our society through gun control or better mental health services represent futile attempts to employ collective defense mechanisms to assuage our anxieties and enable our avoidance of the real issue…there is evil in the world, NONE of us is good, and we as individuals and collectively as a society are powerless to do anything about it. Continue reading
Posted in Controversies, Hidden Disabilities, Key Ministry
Tagged aggression, Christian, church, evil, Mass Murder, massacre, mental illness, Newtown, Psychiatrist, social isolation, violence
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The Pros and Cons of Medication for Kids
We’re looking back at our ten most popular blog posts from 2012. Here’s #4… The widespread use of medication among children with mental health disorders is the ultimate “hot-button” topic in our field today. Undeniably, the use of such medications … Continue reading
Ritalin Gone Wrong? What’s a Parent to Believe?
Kids with ADHD don’t need stories in the news media unnecessarily fueling the fears of parents about the safety or effectiveness of medication they give to their kids struggling with a significant disability. Continue reading
Posted in ADHD, Controversies
Tagged ADHD, L. Alan Sroufe, medication in kids, MTA Study, New York Times, Ritalin, Ritalin Gone Wrong, spiritual development, stimulants
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What Christians (and the church) can learn from Planned Parenthood
Why can’t Christians be as bold and confident in advancing our cause as the Planned Parenthood folks and other “progressive” organizations are in advancing theirs?
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Posted in Controversies, Leadership
Tagged Christians, church, Key Ministry, Leadership, Planned Parenthood, Stephen Grcevich MD, Susan G Komen Foundation
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