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PediPsych

Explore these posts to learn more about child mental health topics.

This is the professional site for child psychiatrist David Rettew, MD, author of Parenting Made Complicated: What Science Really Knows about the Greatest Debates of Early Childhood.

03/01/2026

In Vermont I was frequently asked to talk on the radio but in my years of working in Oregon it never happened until twice on the same day last week. The first was to be a guest on KNND ratio, talking about "The State of our Mental State" which was a presentation I gave to our Board of County Commissioners about how we were doing in our community related to mental health. The show may be on KNND's Facebook site if not now then soon if you want to hear it.

Then I spoke on KLCC about an Oregon bill SB 1548 which would have limited the amount of THC in an individually packaged cannabis edible to 10mg. This was an effort to limit the increase in cannabis poisonings happening to children. Sadly, the cannabis industry used its influence to kill the bill in committee with its allies in the legislature.

A bill that would have placed new restrictions on ma*****na edibles has died in the Oregon legislature.

02/05/2026

My latest post on Psychology Today looks at some upcoming changes that may be coming to the way psychiatric diagnoses are classified. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is mental health's dictionary (not bible) and new versions from the American Psychiatric Association come out periodically. We haven't had a new edition since 2013 and some changes may be coming. Interested to hear folks thought on how we might improve our diagnostic system which pretty much everyone agrees need some modification.

The next version of the DSM is being planned with some potentially major changes. Will we get a giant leap forward or just baby steps?

11/16/2025

Mental health clinics of all types are audited from time to time by various regulatory agencies. It is designed to provide oversight and improve quality. Over the years, I been on both sides of these and I am becoming increasingly aware that these audits often focus on the wrong things. Specifically, these reviews narrow in on relatively minor issues related to forms and procedures while missing bigger and more impactful topics. My latest Psychology Today post looks at this issue.

Regulatory agencies routinely conduct audits of mental health service facilities that focus heavily on easy-to-assess details while missing the big picture. We need to change that.

09/01/2025

My latest post on Psychology Today looks at a new study that track psychiatric diagnoses assigned to youth over time. There was an expected increase in mood and anxiety disorder, particularly for teens and a quite dramatic drop in Bipolar Disorder diagnoses. Back in the day, this was the controversial diagnosis in child psychiatry. I was trained by those who though Bipolar Disorder was underdiagnosed but I just never bought it and ended up collaborating on research that suggested otherwise. Interesting to see the shifts over time.

A new study finds some youth psychiatric diagnoses are increasing over time while others are dropping fast. What do all these changing numbers actually mean?

07/10/2025

My latest post on Psychology Today. It has always seemed odd to me how often mental health professionals avoid doing direct parenting work even though we know it is so important. As one of my mentors often said, parenting is tough and parenting kids with mental health challenges is even tougher. When we see an opportunity as mental health professionals, we need to dive in and try to help not from a perspective that the parenting is necessarily bad (although honestly sometimes it is) but from the perspective that we all could use some extra support navigating difficult parenting situations.

Working with parents on parenting is surprisingly rare in mental health treatment. It shouldn’t be.

04/30/2025

You hear a lot of concern about how things like smartphones, helicopter parenting, and COVID have hurt youth mental health lately. There is some evidence to support this, but many folks who work particularly with youth and families who are really struggling see a somewhat different picture in which more foundational forces like genetics, the prenatal environment, and early trauma and adversity continue to exert major influences. This is the subject of my latest Lab to Smartphone column in JAACAP Connect.

By David Rettew. Far too many youth are struggling with their mental health, and there is no shortage of theories for what might be behind this troubling trend.

02/25/2025

Nice to see KLCC cover the important plans to build a crisis stabilization center and additional inpatient psychiatric beds in the Eugene/Springfield area. We really need this! I did, however, want to clarify what I think is an error in the story. The article says that the new hospital will allow for the ability to treat "lower acuity adults." I wouldn't say it that way. The criteria for inpatient hospitalization will still be the same and require a high level of acuity that cannot be served in less restrictive settings. The crisis stabilization center, however, will be able to assess and treat people will less acute circumstances so they may not need the intensity or the restrictiveness of an emergency department or inpatient hospital.

Hear from leaders of the planned Lane County Crisis Stabilization Center and Timber Springs Behavioral Health Hospital.

02/24/2025

I expanded what I wrote in my last PediPsych post to my latest blog for Psychology Today.

It’s clear the new MAHA Commission wants to focus on pediatric mental health. What’s not clear is exactly what that means and how we should best respond.

02/14/2025

Make American Healthy Again?

It's tough to know what to do with our new administration's Make America Healthy Again. I tried very hard to read it with an unbaised mind, and there is much in common with initiatives I support. More emphasis on health promotion and less on medications - check. Less influence from pharma - check. More attention to prevention - check. At the same time there are some worrying under-currents, like how much they seem to see the problem as too many diagnoses and too much treatment rather than seeing the underlying mental health problems as something to address. It is also hard to ignore the Olympic-levels of hypocrisy that can be present in our current leaders. Yes, pharma ties for a psychiatrist is a conflict but so is financial gain from suing vaccine manufacturers.

Always the optimist, I guess I hope that groups like the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry show a willingness to play ball and help this group by guiding them about real science-based policy. There could be some actual common ground here. However, should the initiative prove to be a total sham to push through radical political ideology under a thin veil of fake science, we'll need to oppose this will all the strength we have.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

01/15/2025

My latest post on Psychology Today which has now been designated an "essential read." This was also my first attempt to try and generate a teaser image using AI which I think turned out ok but not great. I'm aware that some psychiatrists are totally fine being called a provider or prescriber and totally cool with their work being described as "medication management." I'm not, and explaining that is the focus of this post.

Personal Perspective: The not-so-subtle shift in the way psychiatrists and other clinicians are described is no accident, and it’s time to push back.

11/27/2024

"The one parenting book to have."
If you looking for a gift for an expecting or parent of a young child, consider my book Parenting Made Complicated: What Science Really Knows about the Greatest Debates of Early Childhood." It will help them sort through all the conflicting information about current parenting controversies. This book treats parents like grownups and, unlike so much of the parenting advice out there, doesn't assume that all kids are the same. They'll thank you.

Parenting Made Complicated: What Science Really Knows About the Greatest Debates of Early Childhood

11/11/2024

The inaugural Grand Rounds for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) was rescheduled for tomorrow at 11am Pacific, and the title of my talk is "The 'New" Focus on Well-Being in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry." Hope folks can log in and hear about this exciting and long overdue development in mental HEALTH.

Grand Rounds lectures in the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU events

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Lane County Behavioral Health, 2411 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Eugene, OR
97401

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Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
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Website

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/abcs-child-psychiatry

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