What really gets my attention is when a physician puts a child (or anyone for that matter) on an antidepressant and fails to make a referral for psychotherapy. This is a terrible standard of care still widely practiced. If a child is that depressed…I want to know why. What should be obvious to primary care physicians; the diagnosis and treatment of a child is most certainly going to require a thorough evaluation of the parental coalition. Most behavioral problems in a child involve the parents…who are (almost always) open to the role they may be unintentionally playing. To see the etiology resting solely within the child’s biochemistry reveals the limitations of “the medical model”, displays marketing goals that perpetuate pharmaceutical misinformation, reflects insurance companies distortions, and finally is often unchallenged by psychiatry that went full in on the medical model with the advent of managed care. The biopsychosocial model is indeed more comprehensive diagnostically AND to the treatment strategies that open up with this wide field view. No one is arguing that the research and diagnostic considerations into neurochemistry should cease to exist. This is not either/or decision making however, the distortion toward organic factors is real. Finally…there is even a more comprehensive view that includes the biopsychosocial model called Integral Theory for the interested theoretician…but this is another discussion. This article was very important for the public to learn Zenobia.
What really gets my attention is when a physician puts a child (or anyone for that matter) on an antidepressant and fails to make a referral for psychotherapy. This is a terrible standard of care still widely practiced. If a child is that depressed…I want to know why. What should be obvious to primary care physicians; the diagnosis and treatment of a child is most certainly going to require a thorough evaluation of the parental coalition. Most behavioral problems in a child involve the parents…who are (almost always) open to the role they may be unintentionally playing. To see the etiology resting solely within the child’s biochemistry reveals the limitations of “the medical model”, displays marketing goals that perpetuate pharmaceutical misinformation, reflects insurance companies distortions, and finally is often unchallenged by psychiatry that went full in on the medical model with the advent of managed care. The biopsychosocial model is indeed more comprehensive diagnostically AND to the treatment strategies that open up with this wide field view. No one is arguing that the research and diagnostic considerations into neurochemistry should cease to exist. This is not either/or decision making however, the distortion toward organic factors is real. Finally…there is even a more comprehensive view that includes the biopsychosocial model called Integral Theory for the interested theoretician…but this is another discussion. This article was very important for the public to learn Zenobia.