Physician Burnout and Mental Health

Why we should eliminate the diagnosis of ADHD

Steve Balt, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 8, 2012

I’m reluctant to write a post about ADHD. It just seems like treacherous ground. Judging by comments I’ve read online and in magazines, and my own personal experience, expressing an opinion about this diagnosis—or just about anything in child psychiatry—will be met with criticism from one side or another. But after reading L. Alan Sroufe’s article (“Ritalin Gone Wild”) in the New York Times, I feel compelled to write.

If …

Physicians should be concerned about malingering

Dominic A. Carone, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

January 15, 2012

Malingering is the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms motivated by external incentives such as avoiding military duty, avoiding work, obtaining financial compensation, evading criminal prosecution, or obtaining drugs. The word “malingering” comes from the French word “malinger” meaning “poor or weakly” as these are the characteristics feigned or exaggerated by the malingerer. Malingering has been documented as far back as in the Bible when …

The difference between a child psychologist and child psychiatrist

Roy Michael Stefanik, DO

Physician

December 8, 2011

What exactly is the difference between a child psychologist and child psychiatrist? The two terms are frequently mistakenly interchanged, but the requirements for the two are considerably different.

To become a child psychologist, many programs require that you get an undergraduate degree in psychology, although some graduate programs will only require that you take the prerequisite sciences courses (biology, physical and social sciences, statistics, mathematics, etc.) before applying for the graduate …