Parenting Tips for Teens & Mental Health Report by the CDC

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released its first comprehensive report on the state of mental health in children aged 3 to 17. The report titled, Mental Health Surveillance Among Children – United States, 2005 – 20011, compiles research and statistics from a number of federal agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health. This report is an important step in identifying the prevalence of mental health disorders in children and teenagers and is of great use to parents, educators, and health professionals.

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Why I do not Give a Psychological Diagnosis to my Teenage Patients

A psychological diagnosis is about meeting behavioral and emotional criteria, functioning like a check list. You look at the list of symptoms - persistent sadness, trouble sleeping, constant worrying, etc – you see how many of these symptoms the teen in question displays and if they have a certain number of them you assign the diagnosis. It is not a difficult or complicated process. It is almost exclusively descriptive and it does not contribute to my understanding of my teenage patients or how to help them. It is not useful clinically. Researchers use diagnosis as a way to run studies on large groups of people who, on the surface, have similar difficulties. Insurance companies demand the assignment of a diagnosis in order to reimburse.

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