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runawaybunny
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The Boys-Will-Be-Boys Defense - Huffington Post
A recent front page New York Times article about the lack of psychiatric care for adolescent boys at an upstate New York juvenile detention center shouldn't surprise us. The juvenile justice system, in a sense, has become the largest child mental health system, and the child and adolescent psychiatrists there are in short supply. The question we should be asking ourselves is, why are so many teens with psychiatric disorders in jail?
In fact, 80 percent of incarcerated young people have a psychiatric disorder, and most of them, boys, have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well as a conduct disorder. Girls tend to have ADD, not ADHD, and without the hyperactivity component, they are far less likely to develop the conduct disorders that lead to illegal behavior. We know this much, and yet we struggle to identify the children with ADHD and comorbid conduct disorders because of the myths and stigma surrounding psychiatric diagnoses and treatments.
A recent front page New York Times article about the lack of psychiatric care for adolescent boys at an upstate New York juvenile detention center shouldn't surprise us. The juvenile justice system, in a sense, has become the largest child mental health system, and the child and adolescent psychiatrists there are in short supply. The question we should be asking ourselves is, why are so many teens with psychiatric disorders in jail?
In fact, 80 percent of incarcerated young people have a psychiatric disorder, and most of them, boys, have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well as a conduct disorder. Girls tend to have ADD, not ADHD, and without the hyperactivity component, they are far less likely to develop the conduct disorders that lead to illegal behavior. We know this much, and yet we struggle to identify the children with ADHD and comorbid conduct disorders because of the myths and stigma surrounding psychiatric diagnoses and treatments.