Group items tagged

Kanner was born in Austria and educated in Berlin. He came to the U.S. in 1924. In 1930, he moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he founded the first child psychiatry clinic in the country. Based largely on his clinical experience, he then wrote a textbook that defined the field of child psychiatry. His humanism is evident in his lifelong fight against the abuse of children with autism and intellectual disability, and his enduring concern for their families. He also made extraordinary efforts to help physicians and scientists escape from Nazi-controlled territories.

For the first time in 15 years, a major psychiatric organization is updating its practice guidelines for treating kids and adolescents with autism. A series of seven recommendations from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry outline the responsibilities clinicians have in diagnosing and treating those on the spectrum. The guidance published this month in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is an update to recommendations first presented by the group in 1999. It offers clinicians a roadmap for the best assessment and treatment practices for autism, though doctors must also take into account each patient’s unique circumstances in developing a plan, the organization said.

The numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, just the worst of it.But the organizer for a statewide suicide prevention conference held in Helena last week said the event increased people’s awareness of suicide and informed them of programs and training available to help reduce Montana’s suicide rate, which was third in the nation in 2010.“This is just one piece to help address the suicide rate in our state,” said Dr. Len Lantz, who organized the event and specializes in general psychiatry with a sub-specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry.

“We need more research to be able to understand how to treat core symptoms of autism in this population, as well as common associated symptoms such as anxiety, compulsive behaviors and agitation,” said Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Pharmacology and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center investigator. “Individuals, families and clinicians currently have to make decisions together, often in a state of desperation, without clear guidance on what might make things better and what might make things worse, and too often, people with autism spectrum disorders end up on one or more medications without a clear sense of whether the medicine is helping.”

On Wednesday, Ruth O’Hara, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University in California, discussed how sleep disturbances can help us better understand and treat autism. You can watch a complete replay of the session above.

Click here for the Save the Date!What:The day's offerings include renowned speakers on children's psychiatry & treatment, integrated recovery models including primary care, dual-diagnosis treatment, and the mental health consumer recovery movement. Five CMEs (currently pending approval) will be available to those attending; conference registration is $60.When:March 1, 20129:00 am - 3:00 pmWhere:Miles City Community CollegeMiles City, MTContact:Phone: 406-587-7774

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50% of children are bullied and l0% are victims of bullying on a regular basis. Kids who have learning disabilities are especially vulnerable to bullying problems. On this page you will find information about bullying and harassment, prevention, legal decisions about harassment, and effective ways to respond to bullying.

Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for their parents than to treatment with medication alone, Yale researchers and their colleagues report in the February issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

About one in five children who appeared to have autism in 2006 and 2008 would lose that classification with the diagnostic criteria for autism released last year, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry1.

Most of the children who would lose their autism diagnosis under the diagnostic criteria released last year will fall under the new category of social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SCD), reports a large study of Korean children. The study was published last week in the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry1.

Special mental health courts appear to be associated with lower post-treatment arrest rates and reduced number of days of incarceration for individuals with serious psychiatric illnesses, according to a report posted online October 4 that will appear in the February 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

The Brain Balance Achievement Center, a franchise that opened in Mequon last summer, offers a program that it contends can help children overcome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, Tourette syndrome, autism and other disorders. The 12-week program - costing $6,000, plus roughly $125 to $500 in nutritional supplements - purportedly does this by addressing an imbalance between the right and left sides of the brain that it calls "functional disconnection syndrome." The program is based on the contention that ADHD, dyslexia, autism and other disorders all result from this syndrome. "That functional disconnection syndrome basically states in the literature that the two sides of the brain are not communicating effectively together due to the fact that one side of the brain is actually maturing at a faster rate than the other side," said Jeremy Fritz, a chiropractor and co-owner of the franchise. The "literature" consists of one study of children with ADHD, co-authored by the program's founder, published in an obscure journal based in Tel Aviv, Israel. There are no studies in respected, peer-reviewed journals that contend ADHD, dyslexia, autism and other disorders stem from the development of one side of the brain faster than the other. "None of the neuro research would even come close to suggesting that," said Mina Dulcan, a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the head of the child and adolescent psychiatry program at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Targeting the core social deficits of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-pervasive-developmental-disorders/index.shtml) in early intervention programs yielded sustained improvements in social and communication skills even in very young children who have ASD, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study was published online Dec. 8, 2010, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Since the mid-1990s, the number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder has increased a staggering 4,000 percent. And that number has caused a lot of controversy in the world of child psychiatry.

On the Spectrum Jonathan Mitchell is a writer from Los Angeles. He wrote a novel about his life experience with Asperger's syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder. Independent producer Tamar Brott met Mitchell in a writing class a few years ago.

Blythe Corbett Autism researcher Blythe Corbett explores the connection between autism and creativity. She addresses the controversies surrounding autism, including the debunked link to vaccinations and the emerging neurodiversity movement among adults, which says that autism isn't worse - just different.

Forget driving to the office and milling about in the waiting room. Increasingly psychiatrists are ready to meet you face-to-face — no matter where you are — using computers and the power of the internet to make mental health care far more accessible than ever before. So-called telepsychiatry is on the rise and it couldn’t come soon enough. It’s estimated that more than 7 million kids have a need for mental health services due to a mental disorder, behavioral issue or developmental disability. Many of these children go without mental health services, according to a recent government survey.

SHARE's next meeting is Saturday 5/1, at 11 a.m. at the Family Outreach offices, located at 1315 E. Main St., Bozeman, MT. This is the large white building with with green trim at the intersection of Main and Highland. We will discuss "Toxic Psychiatry" by Peter Breggin.

Treatment that includes medication plus a structured training program for parents reduces serious behavioral problems in children with autism and related conditions, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study, which was part of the NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network, was published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.