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Overmedicated Teenagers

Teen stressIt is summer camp season for kids and well-run camps require a medical history and record of prescription medications that the child is taking. One prestigious camp for teens (ages 11 to 19 — average camper is 16) in Southern California recently had 153 residential teenagers. These kids come from California and other states across the U.S. Fifty percent come from out of state and a number of campers each week are international.

Okay, so far so good. Healthy teens getting together for a week of learning and fun. Here is the shocker! I was amazed to learn that almost 25 percent of these kids are on prescription medication. Can it be that we are overmedicating teens?

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*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Sports Physicals For Kids: Why So “Ducky?”

Dear American Academy of Pediatrics,

I think there is a mistake. Kids have recently started coming into the office with forms for sports physicals, and the form is different. See below:

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Someone added stuff to the form! Not only do we have to continue the inexplicable obsession with the hernia check (for maximum humiliation of boys, we try to use only female examiners for this), there’s a bunch of new stuff. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

An App For Baby-Related Emergencies

RN Tara Summers was inspired to make an iPhone app after a frightening episode where she saw her infant child choking. Because she was a nurse, she sprang into action and gave the Heimlich maneuver, but worried about parents (or babysitters) without the same training.

So, along with her emergency medicine physician husband, she created MedBasics — a readily-accessible information packet for the home about things to do in an emergency. Now they’re announcing an iPhone app called BabyMedBasics for emergencies when you’re not at home.

More from MedBasics

iTunes link to the iOS app…

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

“Laxative Tantrums” In Kids?

This “Fletchers Castoria” ad from 1941 is priceless. And as someone who spends his days working with bound-up grumps like Mary, I was reassured to know that horrific constipation is not a me-generation problem born of chicken fingers and Goldfish. ”Laxative tantrums,” however, are new to me. I seem to have pretty good luck with Miralax and Kristalose in my office. Your mileage (or tantrums) may vary.

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Can Vocal Analysis Help Detect Autism Early?

Identifying autistic kids as early as possible is very important so that appropriate clinical interventions and upbringing can have the most beneficial effect.

Now a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown that analyzing the unique signature of children’s pre-speech vocalizations can be a pretty good way to identify potential cases of autism. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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