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Tag Archives: children
DSM-5: Emphasis on the EPISODIC nature of Bipolar Disorder in kids
During the latter decades of the 20th century, this contention by researchers that severe, nonepisodic irritability is a manifestation of pediatric mania coincided with an upsurge in the rates at which clinicians assigned the diagnosis of bipolar disorder to their pediatric patients. This sharp increase in rates appears to be attributable to clinicians combining at least two clinical presentations into a single category. That is, both classic, episodic presentations of mania and non-episodic presentations of severe irritability have been labeled as bipolar disorder in children. In DSM-5, the term bipolar disorder is explicitly reserved for episodic presentations of bipolar symptoms.
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ADHD…DSM-5 criteria validate what’s being done in practice
The most important revisions in the diagnostic criteria take into account the reality that symptoms of ADHD persist into adulthood for many with the disorder, and that the functional impairment associated with ADHD may not be readily apparent for many kids prior to the teen years. Continue reading
Posted in ADHD, Key Ministry, Mental Health
Tagged ADHD, children, diagnostic criteria, dsm-5, medication, mental health, prevalence, teens
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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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Contributing to a conversation about faith and mental illness
What if the environments in which we “do church” are distressing to large segments of our population who struggle with common mental illnesses? And what about the family members of a child or adult with a mental illness who miss out on learning about Jesus or growing in faith in Jesus because attending church or belonging to a small group or participating in a service ministry is too overwhelming to their brother or mother? It’s not unreasonable to assume that a significant chunk of people in any given community have some experience of church but don’t regularly attend church because of the subtle, but real ways in which mental illness presents a barrier to the environments in which we do ministry. Continue reading
Today’s Presentation…Supporting Kids and Teens Who Struggle With Anxiety
Here’s my Power Point presentation for the talk I’ll be presenting later today at the 2013 Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church in McLean, VA Continue reading
Understanding depression in kids and teens…an epilogue
We’ve put together a resource page for pastors, church staff, volunteers and parents with interest in the subject of depression and teens. Continue reading
If this were your kid, would you give them an antidepressant?
First, I’d point out that the potential benefits of medication appear to outweigh the potential risks, especially for kids with anxiety, but in my experience the risk of an increase in suicidal thoughts/behavior associated with antidepressant medication appears to be greater than zero. In fact, if I had to guess, the risk may be a little higher than what the data has led us to believe up to now. Continue reading
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for kids with depression…pros and cons
The kids I treat are prone to what one of our therapists refers to as “stinking thinking”…automatic, irrational thoughts pop into their heads in the course of day-to- day living that trigger negative emotions and lead to patterns of self-defeating behavior. These patterns of self-defeating behaviors often reinforce their cognitive misperceptions and lead to a downward spiral resulting in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and sometimes, suicidal thoughts or plans. Continue reading
Where do I go for help if I think my kid might be depressed?
It’s been my experience that many churches offer reasonably good short-term counseling and support for adults, but very few will have staff with adequate training or supervision in counseling children or teens. So…where does a parent go to find the right help when they suspect their child needs help for depression? Continue reading
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
Church4EveryChild 