I recently received a call from a mother that made me both want to cry and scream out in frustration.
Several months ago I wrote a post entitled Drugs for Children May Silence Stories, in which I described a young boy who had suffered severe neglect as an infant. His adoptive parents had sought help from me when he was four, but when I recommended intervention for the whole family …
ADHD and how drugs impede meaningful help for children
“Momma, have you ever felt like there’s a puzzle and there’s a piece missing and you find the piece and it fits? When I’m with the Maasai all the pieces fit.”
This is a quote from my friend Roland, a seven year old boy, on a trip to Tanzania with his mother. He was on a safari and, using a stick, he was learning how the Maasai use spears to protect …
Prevent bullying by accepting healthy aggression
The trauma for Artyom continues. After having been given up to an orphanage by his alcoholic mother who lost her parental rights, being adopted by a US family, sent back to Russia alone when his adoptive mother allegedly was unable to cope with his psychological problems, he has now become the object of a tug-of war between Russia and the US over his citizenship. His future seems to hold unimaginable …
Adoption lessons after Artyom Savelyev
Last week, I again had the privilege of teaching pediatricians in training. These students were very bright, challenging and asked excellent questions. They all agreed about the limit of the pediatric model of “giving advice.” One resident, who had young children of her own, spoke of new mothers using blogs for emotional support. Many of these mothers speak less than kindly about their pediatricians, who they perceive as “not getting …
Pediatricians need to wonder when dealing with behavior problems
I consider my most successful cases to be the ones that do not seem me any more. Not that they are “better”, but they and their families have come to realize the full complexity of the problems they are struggling with, and are getting appropriate help.
I inherited my “ADHD practice” from another pediatrician. He was wonderful man, a larger than life, toss babies in the air pediatrician with a hearty …
ADHD needs more than drugs to appropriately treat
In the Academy Award winning film, Precious, the main character’s transformation comes about largely through her ability to tell the story of her trauma, specifically in the form of writing. In this endeavor she is encouraged by a loving teacher.
In the book History Beyond Trauma, two French psychoanalysts argue that symptoms their patients exhibit represent the horrors of war that are not spoken of, sometimes for generations. The patient is …
Children who are traumatized need more than medication
In my pediatric practice, it is not uncommon for a mother, given the time, to move quickly away from telling me about her child’s behavior problem, to talk about herself, sharing vivid stories of emotional distress from her own life. I may suggest that this distress could make it difficult for her to deal with the challenging behavior of her child.
Rather than finding this statement helpful, she might collapse back …
Guilt used in a positive manner can help with parenting
In the Tony award winning play God of Carnage two couples meet in an elegant living room for an ostensibly civilized conversation about the aggressive act of one couple’s child against the other’s. The meeting soon degenerates to reveal the underbelly of conflict in the two marriages. Husband and wife hurl insults, precious items and even themselves with escalating rage. We see, as they attempt in vain to focus on …
Aggressive behavior in children and the family dynamic
Carolyn Riley’s act of giving her daughter Rebecca an overdose of prescribed medication may have been the immediate cause of Rebecca’s death, the conclusion reached by the jury that convicted her of murder.
Even if, as the prosecutor argued, Carolyn and her husband concocted symptoms of mental illness and the psychiatrist, who diagnosed bipolar disorder, was a gullible enabler, the real guilty party in this story is, in my opinion, …
Bipolar disorder and how Rebecca Riley could have been saved
A recent editorial in the Boston Globe addressed the dearth of primary care physicians. The piece concluded: “Federal funding for new residency slots should follow reforms that address the underlying reasons – principally money – that lead doctors to choose to specialize.”
Money is certainly important. But there is another obstacle to attracting primary care doctors that is more subtle, though perhaps equally important. Consider the following story.
Recently I had …
Value doctors as listeners to prevent primary care burn out
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