Critical Voices in Child and Adolescent Mental Health

There is a crisis of credibility within child and adolescent psychiatry. Child and adolescent mental health theory and practice have come to be dominated by a narrow biomedical frame. Rising numbers of children are being diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses and given psychotropic medication to treat these illnesses. This text brings together knowledgeable specialists across the spectrum of child and adolescent psychiatry, which are deeply critical about current mainstream theory and practice. These critical voices drawing upon research and writing from related disciplines, radically question many of psychiatry's most cherished assumptions and offer new ways of thinking about theory and practice. This courageous book brings marginal voices into the mainstream. Exploring the influence of drug companies, the impact of trauma, the crisis in academic medicine, systemic perspectives, adolescent in-patient units, ADHD, childhood depression, and the role of diet and nutrition, the contributors offer hope to those looking for alternatives to diagnosis and medication for children and families with emotional and behavioral problems.