Amy Silverman, MD PC

06/06/2026

So much fun giving this grand rounds presentation today at Four Winds Hospital! Even Oliver the therapy dog was engaged in the discussion!!

05/18/2026

I often express concerns about how we as a society are moving towards blaming others for our discomfort or cutting off people in our lives instead of working to understand the perspective of others, to understand our own reactions and to recognize how we can more adaptively respond to challenging situations. This phenomenon of increasingly labeling others as toxic, normalizing estrangement, quitting a job because we feel we are being treated poorly—basically we are not learning how to solve problems! I hadn’t thought about the role of my profession in this shift! In my mind, therapy should be a tool to prevent this and to build problem solving and resilience. But, are too many in my field actually reinforcing this instead? This is really interesting and I find it quite compelling!!

Therapy promised Americans greater agency and insight. Instead, it delivered a more satisfying story about why someone else is to blame, writes Jonathan Alpert.

05/09/2026

Of course I am in favor of weighing risks and benefits and taking kids off of medications when they are no longer necessary, but we saw what happened when the Black Box warning was first placed on the use of antidepressants in young people—as the number of kids who were treated declined, adolescent su***de rates sharply rose! This rhetoric is dangerous!!

AACAP is closely monitoring recent federal actions and public statements related to the prescribing of psychiatric medications.

When clinically appropriate and carefully monitored, psychiatric medications—including SSRIs—are safe, effective, and, for many individuals, lifesaving. Decisions about starting or stopping medication should remain grounded in the best available medical evidence, sound clinical judgment, and the preferences of patients and families.

At a time when the nation is facing a youth mental health crisis, it is critical that policies affecting access to psychiatric medications and mental health services are informed by evidence and guided by child and adolescent psychiatrists and other qualified clinicians.

We encourage you to read our full statement from AACAP President John T. Walkup, MD:
🔗 https://bit.ly/3PvLUJv

Today and every day, AACAP remains committed to advancing high-quality, evidence-based care and support for children, adolescents, and families.

05/01/2026

Sitting here preparing for a talk on this very subject and FB alerts me this was published today! While we often focus on the harms, which can be quite significant, as shown in this article, it reminded me there are benefits of technology too!

This Medical News article discusses a study linking digital media—particularly social media—use to consistent risks for children’s mental health and development.

02/10/2026

Drink up when it comes to that coffee or tea!! Question I still have is whether my Splenda negates these benefits 🙂

People who drank the most caffeinated coffee had a lower risk of dementia compared with those who drank the least, the long-term observational study found.

02/04/2026

And post #2 with my second amazing book recommendation--both of these books are written by dear friends who are some of the most dedicated and knowledgeable people in their fields!!!! I have had a sneak peek at both of them and they are phenomenal reads with great tips and suggestions!!! I am honored to call these brilliant, kind, warm, caring and lovely women my friends and colleagues!!

Thank you to Caroline Maguire for such a needed book as a follow up to one of my old favorites (Why Will Nobody Play with me?). Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults is a must read! Written as only Caroline can write it!

Friendship can be hard for many Neurodivergent adults. There is an assumption that good, worthwhile friendships “should” come easy. However, for Neurodivergent adults, there are brain-based reasons why friendship can feel less intuitive. From differences in the parts of the brain that are v...

02/04/2026

2 amazing book recommendations to make today--both written by dear friends who are some of the most dedicated and knowledgeable people in their fields!!!! I have had a sneak peek at both of them and they are phenomenal reads with great tips and suggestions!!! I am honored to call these brilliant, kind, warm, caring and lovely women my friends and colleagues!! Here is the first one!! I will post the second one separately so they each get the space they deserve!!

Anne Poirier has written an amazing book on body neutrality--full of great suggestions and exercises!!

Transform your relationship with your body through practical tools and daily practices that promote self-acceptance and inner peace. Break free from diet culture and negative self-talk to embrace a compassionate, confident, and healthier you. The Body Neutrality...

09/23/2025

This is an excellent review and summary of what we know. If you are looking to do a deeper dive the links given have more data. But the slides are accessible and provide the highlights. Thank you to the team at Unbiased Science for this post!

06/26/2025

Another great reason to teach our kids to write the way we dinosaurs learned to write instead of relying on Chat GPT. Using AI to write leads to less healthy brain connectivity and makes us more average!!

A recent M.I.T. study found that subjects who used ChatGPT to write essays demonstrated much less brain activity than a group that used their own brains to write and a group that was given access to Google Search to look up relevant information. The analysis of the L.L.M. users showed fewer widespread connections between different parts of their brains; less alpha connectivity, which is associated with creativity; and less theta connectivity, which is associated with working memory. Another striking finding was that the texts produced by the L.L.M. users tended to converge on common words and ideas; the use of A.I. had a homogenizing effect. “The output was very, very similar for all of these different people, coming in on different days, talking about high-level personal, societal topics, and it was skewed in some specific directions,” Nataliya Kosmyna, a research scientist at M.I.T. Media Lab, said. A.I. is a technology of averages: large language models are trained to spot patterns across vast tracts of data; the answers they produce tend toward consensus. Other, older technologies have aided and perhaps enfeebled writers, of course. But with A.I. we’re so thoroughly able to outsource our thinking that it makes us more average, too. Read Kyle Chayka on the cognitive cost of relying on A.I. to perform tasks that humans previously accomplished more manually: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/hWuRQz

06/07/2025

According to a study published last month, 88% of callers to the su***de and crisis lifeline in a one year period said this call saved their lives! We can ALL help prevent the increasing rates of su***de by ensuring everyone knows about 988!!!