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Pediatric psychiatrists are highly specialized doctors who work with children with mental disorders or developmental conditions. They require specialized care and often work with a team of mental health professionals. They may work in outpatient clinics, hospitals, or state organizations. There are few specialists in child psychiatry, and they are better equipped to deal with the nuances of psychiatric illnesses or conditions that occur in children and adolescents.
A pediatric psychiatrist may also be called a child psychiatrist. All psychiatrists are physicians who have completed medical school. Upon that completion, they specialize in psychiatry, and some, after becoming licensed psychiatrists, spend a few more years studying and practicing child psychiatry. They are essentially highly specialized doctors who specialize in working with children who have mental disorders or who have developmental conditions like retardation, significant learning difficulties or things like Tourette’s syndrome.
It is recognized in the psychiatric community that treating children is different from treating adults. Children and adolescents are not small adults and need specialized care adapted to them. Consideration of how to alter or titrate medication dosages, how to administer therapy, and how best to manage mental or developmental disorders in children is important for the pediatric psychiatrist. These specialists also often have direct involvement with the parents of the patients they treat and may include parents or other caregivers in the decision-making process about how to treat a specific condition.
There are several settings in which a pediatric psychiatrist can function. He or she could maintain an office and treat most patients on an outpatient basis. Some of these doctors work primarily with children and teenagers who are in hospitals, either for short periods of time or for longer stays. Another role that a child psychiatrist can play is working with state organizations like Child Protective Services (or their equivalents). They may screen children suspected of abuse or make decisions about the mental stability of children who have committed crimes. In this latter capacity, they may be called child forensic psychiatrists or pediatricians.
In most jobs, a pediatric psychiatrist may work with a team of mental health professionals. Although these doctors are trained and capable of administering therapy, this is not always their primary job. They may work with psychologists or other licensed counselors who do most of the therapy working with a child or adolescent, as well as cooperating with observations made by the child’s pediatrician. Some psychiatrists choose to offer therapy and treatment of whatever medications are prescribed, but this varies.
Psychiatry makes up a very small percentage of all licensed physicians in the US, around 5%, and there are even fewer specialists in child psychiatry. It can be difficult in remote areas to find a person who is a licensed pediatric psychiatrist. It should be noted that any psychiatrist is qualified to treat children, but in the field there are many who feel that a pediatric psychiatrist is better able to deal with the nuances of psychiatric illnesses or conditions that occur in children and adolescents.
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