Dr. Feder responds to calls to ban psychiatric medications in children, arguing that accurate, individualized assessment—not blanket restriction—protects young patients. He reflects on this issue's throughline: avoiding overdiagnosis, embracing nonpharmacologic approaches, deprescribing thoughtfully, and partnering with parents, all in service of rigorous, evidence-based care.
Most bipolar youth need care beyond medication alone. This update reviews family-focused therapy and dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents, addressing family communication, suicidality, and sleep problems, and offers practical guidance on selecting approaches and locating properly trained therapists for families.
Should medications for pediatric bipolar disorder ever be reduced or stopped? This update reviews relapse risk after discontinuation, how bipolar I differs from bipolar II, and a stepwise approach to minimizing antipsychotic exposure—covering patient selection, taper pacing, and the role of adjunctive psychotherapy.
Need another option for ADHD patients who haven't responded to stimulants or atomoxetine? The FDA approves centanafadine (Simtriyo), a novel triple reuptake inhibitor.
How should clinicians support parents navigating their child’s bipolar diagnosis? Dr. David Miklowitz discusses recognizing early warning signs, managing guilt, denial, and high expressed emotion, addressing a parent’s own mental health, and using family-focused therapy to ease conflict, rebuild communication, and improve treatment engagement over time.
The FDA’s 2004 black-box warning aimed to boost suicidality monitoring in youth on antidepressants. Two decades and thousands of prescriptions later, did it work—or did it quietly reshape treatment patterns in unintended ways?
Adult tapering rules don’t always translate cleanly to children and teens. A new systematic review asks which antidepressants carry the highest withdrawal risk in youth, and just how slow a taper needs to be.
Stimulant versus non-stimulant for ADHD is a familiar debate. A head-to-head trial looks beyond core symptoms to executive function and emotional side effects—where do the two agents diverge?
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder can stall despite months of good therapy, leaving weight and growth stuck. Could a low-dose atypical antipsychotic help these underweight, treatment-resistant youth finally turn the corner?
Dr. Joshua Feder studied mathematics and medicine at Boston University, Psychiatry at Naval Regional Medical Center San Diego, serving the first Gulf War in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, and eventually became Chief of Child Psychiatry at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Feder now practices in Solana Beach, California, and serves as Executive Medical Director at Positive Development, providing relationship-based support for families, with research at UCSD, SDSU, Fielding Graduate University, An Najah National University, Quicksilver Software, Autism Is inclusion program, and Programmatic Lead for the International Networking Group on Peace Building with Young Children, with projects in the US, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. Dr. Feder co-authored the first American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Practice Parameter on Autism and serves as Co-Chair of the Disaster & Trauma Committee at AACAP. Dr Feder was founding policy chair for the California Association for Infant Mental Health and advocates worldwide on access to care, climate policy, and peacebuilding. His recent books include Child Medication Fact Book for Psychiatric Practice, Second Edition (2023) and Prescribing Psychotropics (2021).
