At Carlat we dig deeper: Last fall it was the possibility of suicidality with antidepressants when we see the real data; this winter, it was the lack of clinical relevance of CYP enzyme testing when we use medications carefully; and this spring, beneath the apparent weight of thousands of studies that turn out to be flawed, we found an absence of a definable effect size for the massive $17 billion applied behavioral analysis industry.

In this double issue, we tackle a range of questions. First, does TMS help kids and teens with depression? Is it safe? Since many clinics are advertising TMS, we thought it was worth a close look.

In the article we discuss the effectiveness and safety of the first non-drug treatment for ADHD in kids. The FDA has recently granted medical device approval for its external Monarch Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (eTNS) System for treating kids with ADHD ages 7–12 who are not currently taking medications.

This double issue was long in the making. We contacted a number of experts in the world of trauma, from Jeff Max on traumatic brain injury to Suzan Song on helping refugees. We also spoke with Stuart Shanker about what we could learn from his experience in developing mass education on self-regulation in children. And as promised, we have responded to the recent reports of increased mortality in children taking “higher” doses of antipsychotic medications.

For our 2019 issue on anxiety, we spoke with Dr. Moira Rynn at Duke about the concept of anxiety as a pervasive symptom that cuts across diagnostic categories. We are focused on anxiety as a target symptom that happens every day, but what are the data for medication treatment?

In this issue we tackle a range of challenges, including differentiating ADHD from bipolar disorder, understanding suicide risk in college students, managing assertions about the safety of weed, and assessing and treating violent behavior in our patients.

In this issue, we look at the complex relationship between bullying and suicidality and offer a range of ideas on how to help your patients with this all-too-common problem, both in the office and in advocating for your patients, with resources to boot.

Anxiety is a broad concept that permeates pretty much all of our work. In particular, anxiety often compromises cognitive ability and drives acting-out behavior.

When parents bring in their kids for concentration, attention, and learning issues, it’s common to assume a provisional diagnosis of ADHD. In many children, however, anxiety can be the real cause of these problems.