Clinical Child Psychiatry

Making a psychiatric diagnosis in children can be challenging: some clinicians say the incidence of some childhood disorders, such as bipolar disorder and ADHD, is over-diagnosed while others saying they are undiagnosed, undertreated, and are a large burden on society. The drug treatment of child psychiatric disorders can also be controversial in children and adolescents. This book fulfills the need for an objective, clinically relevant source to dispel this confusion. Clinical Child Psychiatry is a textbook of current clinical practice in child and adolescent psychiatry. It is designed as a reference for clinicians that is both easily usable and authoritative, a “chairside” reference for the consultation room. This book addresses a defined series of clinical entities that represent the bulk of current treatment modalities and disorders encountered in 21st century practice. It is authoritative in the areas addressed while at the same time being rapidly accessible in format. To facilitate access, it presents disorders in declining order of frequency. The authors believe that worthwhile clinical work must be informed by both evidence-based practice and by psychiatry’s traditional attention to internal and interpersonal dynamics. They are committed to an approach that is broadly biopsychosocial while based on current clinical evidence for a pragmatic, clinical focus. The book is divided into four sections. The first, Fundamentals of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Practice, addresses assessment, treatment modalities, and planning. Common Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Disorders and Developmental Disorders cover the diagnosis and treatment of the large majority of disease entities encountered in practice. The final section, Special Problems in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, includes a variety of topics such as foster care and adoption, loss and grief, and forensics. The book also includes: New evidence relating to the areas of depression, psychosis, trauma. New insights from genetics, genomics, and proteomics cleverly integrated into chapters on the individual disease with focus on their clinical application. New chapter on consultation and collaboration within systems of care The book addresses a need for clinicians, many of whom are beginners, non-psychiatrists, or psychiatrists entering unfamiliar territory, to come up to speed rapidly in providing more than perfunctory service to needy populations. This challenge grows ever greater. The book has a companion website with questions to facilitate learning.