Re-Imagining Child Welfare to Support Children and Families.

Children and adolescents in foster care include many of the most severely traumatized victims of child abuse and neglect. They deserve the best possible care and treatment, yet their outcomes remain poor. The persistence of poor outcomes for youth in foster care reflects challenges of psychiatric diagnostic formulation and of service system design/access, both areas in which child and adolescent psychiatrists have a key role to improve care and outcomes.

Strengthening Support for Community Mental Health Programs Through Partnership and Collective Impact.

Effective partnerships can profoundly impact outcomes for youth with behavioral health concerns. Partnerships occur at multiple levels - at the individual, organizational, state, and national levels. The Systems of Care (SOC) framework helps to conceptualize and articulate the skills necessary for forming partnerships in youth's mental health.

Best Practices for Evaluation and Treatment of Agitated Children and Adolescents (BETA) in the Emergency Department: Consensus Statement of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.

Introduction: Agitation in children and adolescents in the emergency department (ED) can be dangerous and distressing for patients, family and staff. We present consensus guidelines for management of agitation among pediatric patients in the ED, including non-pharmacologic methods and the use of immediate and as-needed medications.

Methods: Using the Delphi method of consensus, a workgroup comprised of 17 experts in emergency child and adolescent psychiatry and psychopharmacology from the the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Emergency Child Psychiatry Committee sought to create consensus guidelines for the management of acute agitation in children and adolescents in the ED.

Narrative Review: Impairing Emotional Outbursts: What They Are and What We Should Do About Them.

Objective: Impairing emotional outbursts, defined by extreme anger or distress in response to relatively ordinary frustrations and disappointments, impact all mental health care systems, emergency departments, schools, and juvenile justice programs. However, the prevalence, outcome, and impact of outbursts are difficult to quantify because they are transdiagnostic and not explicitly defined by current diagnostic nosology. Research variably addresses outbursts under the rubrics of tantrums, anger, irritability, aggression, rage attacks, or emotional and behavioral dysregulation.

Agitation and Restraint in a Pediatric Psychiatric Emergency Program: Clinical Characteristics and Diagnostic Correlates.

Objectives: Agitation and restraint among pediatric psychiatric patients are a frequent, yet little studied, source of morbidity and, rarely, mortality in the emergency department (ED). This study examined agitation and restraint among youth patients in a specialized pediatric psychiatric ED, considering clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of those who required restraint to determine the clinical correlates of agitation and restraint in this population.

Methods: This descriptive study was a 6-year retrospective chart review of all patients restrained for acute agitation.

Erratum: This Article Corrects: "Best Practices for Evaluation and Treatment of Agitated Children and Adolescents (BETA) in the Emergency Department: Consensus Statement of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry".

[This corrects the article on p. 409 in vol. 20, PMID: 30881565.

Erratum: This Article Corrects: "Best Practices for Evaluation and Treatment of Agitated Children and Adolescents (BETA) in the Emergency Department: Consensus Statement of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry".

[This corrects the article on p. 409 in vol. 20, PMID: 30881565.

Best Practices for Evaluation and Treatment of Agitated Children and Adolescents (BETA) in the Emergency Department: Consensus Statement of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.

Introduction: Agitation in children and adolescents in the emergency department (ED) can be dangerous and distressing for patients, family and staff. We present consensus guidelines for management of agitation among pediatric patients in the ED, including non-pharmacologic methods and the use of immediate and as-needed medications.

Methods: Using the Delphi method of consensus, a workgroup comprised of 17 experts in emergency child and adolescent psychiatry and psychopharmacology from the the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Emergency Child Psychiatry Committee sought to create consensus guidelines for the management of acute agitation in children and adolescents in the ED.

Crisis in the Emergency Department: The Evaluation and Management of Acute Agitation in Children and Adolescents.

Acute agitation in children and adolescents in the emergency department carries significant risks to patients and staff and requires skillful management, using both nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic strategies. Effective management of agitation requires understanding and addressing the multifactorial cause of the agitation. Careful observation and multidisciplinary collaboration is important.

Friendly Faces: Characteristics of Children and Adolescents With Repeat Visits to a Specialized Child Psychiatric Emergency Program.

Objectives: Pediatric mental health emergency department (ED) visits continue to rise with 19% to 62% of youth presenting to the ED ultimately returning for a mental health-related complaint. To better understand the needs of children returning to the ED, this study examines the clinical, demographic, and environmental factors associated with revisits to a dedicated child psychiatric ED.

Methods: Clinical factors, home environment, and mental health service utilization of 885 children presenting to a dedicated child psychiatric ED over a 1-year period were abstracted by retrospective chart review.

Utilization Patterns at a Specialized Children's Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program.

Objective: Most youths experiencing a psychiatric crisis present to emergency departments (EDs) that lack the specialized staff to evaluate them, so youths are often discharged without appropriate mental health assessment or treatment. To better understand the needs of this population, this study described clinical details and disposition associated with visits for psychiatric emergencies to a specialized ED staffed 24/7 by child psychiatrists.

Methods: Through retrospective chart review, 1,180 visits to the ED during its first year of operation were reviewed for clinical characteristics, prior service utilization, and demographic characteristics.

Traumatic stress and posttraumatic stress disorder in youth: recent research findings on clinical impact, assessment, and treatment.

Childhood trauma can have a profound effect on adolescent development, with a lifelong impact on physical and mental health and development. Through a review of current research on the impact of traumatic stress on adolescence, this article provides a framework for adolescent health professionals in pediatrics and primary care to understand and assess the sequelae of traumatic stress, as well as up-to-date recommendations for evidence-based treatment. We first review empirical evidence for critical windows of neurobiological impact of traumatic stress, and then we discuss the connection between these neurobiological effects and posttraumatic syndromes, including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, aggressive behavior, and psychosis.

Self-reported coping strategies in families of patients in early stages of psychotic disorder: an exploratory study.

Aim: Coping by families of patients with schizophrenia include 'approach' strategies considered to be adaptive (e.g. reinterpretation) and potentially maladaptive 'avoidant' strategies (denial/disengagement, use of alcohol and drugs).

Mania following vagus nerve stimulation: a case report and review of the literature.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an increasingly used therapy for patients with treatment-refractory epilepsy and depression. Hypomanic and manic symptoms are a rare but recognized adverse effect of VNS treatment. Here we describe a case in which VNS treatment in a patient with epilepsy and unipolar depression was associated with the rapid development of manic symptoms.

Stigma in families of individuals in early stages of psychotic illness: family stigma and early psychosis.

Aim: Stigma is pervasive among families of individuals with psychotic disorders and includes both general and 'associative' stigma - that is, the process by which a person is stigmatized by virtue of association with another stigmatized individual. These forms of stigma may present a barrier to help seeking. However, little is known about stigma in the early stages of evolving psychotic disorder.