Caring for the Child With a Mental Health Disorder Practice Flashcards

Vocabulary-based flashcards for reviewing pediatric mental health concepts, including risk factors, specific disorders like ADHD and ASD, and eating disorders.

Risk factors for mental illness

Include physical problems, intellectual disabilities, low birth weight, family history, multigenerational poverty, and caregiver separation, abuse, or neglect.

Barriers to child/adolescent mental health care

Skepticism about disorder significance, lack of timely screening, shame (stigma), inability to receive treatment, and health-care illiteracy.

Start low, go slow

The practice of starting medication at low doses and titrating up slowly as needed.

Therapies for children

Includes Play, Art, Music, Pet, Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

Anxiety (Pathological)

Persistent distress that pervades multiple aspects of a child's life, involves avoidance of feared situations, and impairs functioning or development.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Anxiety in response to trauma or threats, involving flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of triggers, and physiological arousal.

Major depressive disorder

Diagnosis based on exhibited depressive symptoms that may be situational or related to biological and genetic factors.

Anhedonia

A loss of interest in activities once enjoyed.

Depression Medications

Includes Tricyclic Antidepressants, SSRIs, and SNRIs such as Trazadone, Sertraline, Paroxetine, Bupropion, and Venlafaxine.

Suicide Red Flags

Withdrawal from friends, hopelessness, personality changes, giving away prized possessions, and preoccupation with death in writing or play.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A prevalent psychiatric condition characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

ADHD Diagnosis Criteria

Six (or more) symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity persisting for at least $6\,months$ to a degree that is maladaptive.

Methylphenidate

An ADHD medication sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta.

Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate

An ADHD medication known as Vyvanse.

Guanfacine

A nonstimulant medication (Tenex or Intuniv) used to treat ADHD.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Condition involving frequent temper tantrums, excessive arguing, questioning of rules, and active defiance or refusal to comply with requests.

Conduct Disorder (CD)

Includes antisocial behaviors such as cruelty to people/animals, rule-breaking without reason, truancy before $age\,13$, and fire setting.

Dyslexia

A reading disorder where the ability to read is significantly impaired; words or letters may be distorted or mixed up.

Dyscalculia

An arithmetic disorder involving an inability to understand numbers, functions, or sequences.

Dysgraphia

A writing disorder characterized by difficulties forming letters or writing within a prescribed space.

Language Disorder

Delays in or lack of ability to understand or express verbal communication.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and speech, where symptoms typically appear by $age\,3$.

Anorexia Nervosa

The relentless pursuit of thinness and distorted body image, which may require hospitalization if weight is $\le 75\%$ of median BMI.

Bulimia Nervosa

Recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by purging (vomiting, laxatives, or overexercising); weight is usually normal.

Russell’s sign

Teeth marks, calluses, or scarring on the knuckles from self-inducing vomiting, common in Bulimia Nervosa.