Adolescent Psychological Development: Normal and Abnormal (From Juvenile Psychiatry and the Law, P 219-236, 1989, Richard Rosner and Harold I Schwartz, eds. -- See NCJ-119142)

• NCJ Number: 119154
• Author(s): E Dulit
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Plenum Press
• Publication Type: Training (Aid/Material)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A basic task for the forensic psychiatrist who works with adolescent clients or offenders or patients in court-related settings is to make a special effort to determine which cases involve a significant degree of psychiatric illness as a major underlying factor contributing to the overall clinical picture.

Abstract

This effort should recognize that other significant factors may also exist, including situational circumstances, social class factors, and special family circumstances. Another task is to accept that in a substantial minority of cases seen in adolescence a distinction cannot be made with confidence between the presence of underlying mental illness versus merely a bad case of adolescence, as manifested by flamboyance, excessiveness, unconventionality, rule breaking, and major rebelliousness. However, that distinction can be made reliably in the majority of cases. A third task is to have easy access to a wide range of different treatment services and approaches to which youths can be referred for appropriate treatment. Finally, the forensic psychiatrist must find a way to a middle ground on the issue of more versus less restrictiveness in treatment imposed on psychiatrically disturbed adolescents, particularly those with conduct disorders. 2 references.