The Treatment of Child & Adolesc Mental Illness

Catalog description

Provides students with an overview and understanding of the current methods employed in the treatment of child and adolescent mental illness. For most of the past century, treatments for children and adolescents suffering from mental illness relied primarily on open-ended psychotherapies, which have not consistently demonstrated a beneficial effect. Over the past 25 years, however, a variety of new evidence-based treatments have emerged, including behavioral psychotherapies such as cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety and depression, dialectical behavior therapy for personality disorders, and parent management training for children with oppositional and defiant disorders. In addition, we now have strong evidence supporting the use of various pharmacological interventions for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mood and anxiety disorders, and autism. Students investigate each of these treatments by reading and analyzing much of the original research that established their efficacy. This course builds upon Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (V05.0101).