Mental health articles

The US Surgeon General reports that about 5 million children and adolescents in the United States have a serious mental illness. A serious mental illness is a diagnosable mental disorder that impairs a child’s daily life. The challenge that

a practitioner faces is to differentiate between normal growth and development in a child who at times exhibits symptoms of a mental illness and symptoms of a mental disorder. For example, is defying authority a sign of autonomy or a symptom of oppositional defiant disorder? Until recently, researchers focused on adult mental illness primarily because of the difficulty in differentiating between normal and abnormal growth and development. A child’s behavior might appear bizarre at age 2 yet the child demonstrates normal behavior at age 3. The bizarre behavior is considered normal growth and development. Today researchers are investigating factors that may lead to childhood and adolescent mental illness such as neglect, severe emotional trauma, physical abuse, and extreme stress. You will learn about childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders and how to care for this population.

Tags: adolescent, Childhood, psychiatric disorders