Around half of my patients are adults. My patients range in age from infancy through their 80′s. Many of my patients first come to me with a problem concerning their child. To address the problem, I may work with the child individually, or with his or her family. It may turn out that there are parental or marital issues. I may end up doing parent education, couples therapy, or treating a parent individually for depression, which ends up helping the child. Even if I see an adult individually and never see his or her family, the patient usually views my extra expertise in working with children and families as a bonus, helping me to better understand past or current struggles with family members.
A developmental perspective is helpful with patients of all ages. Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrists often like to refer to themselves as the true general psychiatrists, because they are trained to treat patients throughout the life cycle. Furthermore, and as noted above, there is great flexibility in the choice and provision of treatment modalities. Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrists are well-versed in individual, family, couples, and group psychotherapy. They are trained in long-term and short-term dynamic, group, interpersonal, dialectical behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, play therapy, as well as systems theory/family therapy, and are able to integrate pharmacotherapy into their work with patients of all ages.
My Adult residency and extra two year fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry provided me with training in working with children from infancy through late adulthood. I have learned how to work with the parents, extended families, schools, hospitals, courts, and interdisciplinary treatment teams. My training and experience included diverse treatment settings (inpatient, day hospital, outpatient, residential, forensic, institutional). I have learned how to be a teacher, a supervisor, and an administrative leader. My training after medical school included pediatric and adult neurology and in hospital consultation-liaison to pediatrics and adults. I have participated in extensive classroom experience involving extended coursework in normal developmental theory throughout the life cycle, as well as the full range of clinical syndromes and their treatments. I have throughout my medical education been exposed to research methodology, which included journal club participation throughout my residency and fellowship training.