News

The demands on physicians keep growing-they are not only responsible for assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, they are subject to all manner of related administrative and practice responsibilities. It’s no wonder that they are too busy to step back and periodically assess themselves and what they are doing.

It is important for clinicians to address the issue of friendships when evaluating and treating children. Parents should be apprised about the critical need for a best friend or friends for their children.

Research over the past 2 decades has demonstrated that ADHD occurs frequently and causes considerable suffering in patients and their families. ADHD begins in early childhood and persists through adolescence and into adulthood in 70% of those affected.

Assessments of partial culpability of adolescents are difficult in individual cases; however, the courts are moving away from mandatory sentencing to individual determinations, even for the most heinous crimes.

A recent article in the New York Times reports that doctors are prescribing stimulant drugs to compensate for the bad schools their child patients have to attend. Rates of ADHD have tripled in the last 15 years-precisely because many kids are being diagnosed with fake ADHD to make them eligible for medications and/or extra school services.

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The latest research on psychiatric disorders will be presented at the 2012 Psych Congress in San Diego, CA, held from November 8 - 11. The staff of Psychiatric Times will provide news coverage on a number of topics including including ADHD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. In addition, we will be interviewing many of the faculty and posting the interviews online as podcasts for download.

James Dao reports in the New York Times that the military is considering 2 steps to reduce its startling rate of active duty suicides-which is approaching an unacceptable one suicide every day. Both measures are completely sensible, but neither goes nearly far enough.