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April 30, 2026
The decision to wean a child or adolescent off selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) often comes with feelings of both hope and trepidation—not just from the parent and child, but also from the primary care clinician. A recent meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry found that 15% of patients experience withdrawal symptoms when stopping SSRI
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September 26, 2024
“Any transition is a time that our patients can trip and fall,” explains Tina Nicholson, MD, a family doctor specializing in children and youth mental health. The transition to college, especially if it involves moving away from home, is no exception. To understand how providers can help adolescents navigate this transition, we spoke with REACH
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July 22, 2024
“Many parents’ biggest concern about starting their children on medication is committing to an intervention they won’t be able to stop in the future,” explains child and adolescent psychiatrist Laurence Greenhill, MD. Research shows that parental beliefs and concerns are a top contributing factor to whether children and adolescents receive proper treatment for mental health
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September 8, 2022
On August 27, The New York Times ran an article by Matt Richtel titled “This Teen Was Prescribed 10 Psychiatric Drugs. She Is Not Alone.” It documents the practice of “polypharmacy”: prescribing multiple medications—most of which have not been tested either in children or in combination with one another—to manage young patients’ depression or anxiety. That young patients are being prescribed potent cocktails of untested drugs is obviously wrong. The question is, how did we get to this point, and what can we do about it?
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June 13, 2022
As summer rolls around, families may ask whether their children can have a “holiday” from their psychoactive medication, especially for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We asked Lawrence Amsel, MD, MPH, a REACH faculty member and associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, to lay out the pros and cons.
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January 21, 2022
Newer treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pediatric patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) include two medications that address some of the common issues families have with standard stimulant treatments. Another development is use of devices to manage ADHD symptoms.
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July 26, 2021
If you struggle with titrating psychiatric medications for your pediatric patients, you are not alone. Even for some alumni of the REACH program Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care, lack of comfort with psychiatric medications can hamper effective treatment. What does it take to dose and cross-titrate effectively? We asked two REACH faculty members: Peter S. Jensen, MD, REACH founder, and Amy Kryder, MD, education lead of the statewide REACH program in Virginia.
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July 24, 2019
“Going to college is exciting, but students need to know that this experience, though positive, may also be stressful,” said REACH faculty member Elena Man, MD. Dr. Man recommends resources and strategies that pediatric primary care clinicians can use to prepare patients for this significant transition to a new environment for learning, living, and friendships.
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November 15, 2018
The new edition of Guidelines for Adolescent Depression in Primary Care (GLAD-PC) is now available on The REACH Institute website. This practical toolkit offers dozens of resources to help pediatric primary care providers diagnose and treat depression.
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Suicide prevention is not limited to one setting or one type of clinician. Children and adolescents may first share concerns about their mental health with a trusted pediatrician or primary care clinician, making it especially important…
What happens when primary care clinicians are given more tools to address children’s mental health? This article from Cook Children’s Health Care System shares how REACH training helped equip pediatricians with practical tools to more confidently…
Pediatric residency faculty: There is still space available in REACH’s upcoming Resident Education in Assessing Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidality (READS) training. This live, virtual two-day program is designed to equip residency educators with the skills and…
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential support 24/7. Individuals can call, text, or chat 988 to connect with trained crisis counselors. This month, we’ll be sharing resources…
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