Current Pediatric Research

Childhood mood and behavioral disorders are increasingly common in the United States, but are often not recognized and treated in a timely fashion. Pediatricians and other primary care providers are urged to play a key role in monitoring and fostering children’s mental as well as physical health, but time constraints are often limiting. One way of facilitating interactions in this domain, is to have parents provide the longitudinal tracking of their child’s mood and behavior on a weekly basis on a secure website. The ratings can then be printed out and brought to the physician for a more detailed assessment of symptom fluctuations, need for treatment, and degree of response. The informed consent for such a system is available for parents at www. bipolarnews.org (click on Child Network). We hope physicians will encourage parents to join the Child Network, as this should help facilitate earlier recognition and treatment of a wide range of psychiatric disorders presenting in childhood.

Author(s): Robert M Post

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