Why its hard to diagnose kids with psychiatric disorders?

Question

What factors make psychiatric diagnosis particularly difficult in children?

I mean for one there is no research. but what about the fact they are still developing? how does that effect this? its for developmental psych.

Answer 1

Well, there is plenty of research about diagnosing children. The problems I have with diagnosing children are:

Is the behavior abnormal or part of their normal development? I assessed a 3-year old child whose mother thought he had ADHD. She became upset when I told her that the child's overactive behavior was due to his age and not ADHD.

Are you pathologizing a child? Usually when a parent brings a child to see me, I want to know everything about the family. When there is a family with a child with a behavioral problem, a lot of the time, it has to do with something within the structure of the family. So, should you be diagnosing the child who is exhibiting the symptoms or the family that is causing them?

Psychiatric disorders can be stigmatizing. A child gets the label of Oppositional Defiant Disorder when he/she is 6 and later, their frontal lobes develop more, they mature and grow out of it. However, this label is still stuck with them.

Answer 2

Normal behavioral traits are well known and well documented for every age group.

Any abnormal behavior should immediately stand out and be recognized by a trained professional in this area.