The issue of overdiagnosis in medicine has been brought to center stage by recent and proposed changes to screening guidelines for prostate and breast cancer. Overdiagnosis, however, is also a problem in the pediatric population, cautioned Eric Coon, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Changes in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) relating to trauma and stressor-related disorders have important implications for optimizing care of pediatric patients.
There is no question that pediatricians are experienced in managing constipation considering its prevalence among children. Research shows, however, that the majority of pediatricians are not aware of recently released evidence-based recommendations for both the diagnostic evaluation of children with constipation and the treatment of functional constipation, said Samuel Nurko, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Breastfeeding may not make smarter babies, according to a new report from the UK, but CDC says it still makes healthier babies overall and hospitals have more work to do in order to provide optimal support for nursing mothers.
Women who receive the prophylactic bivalent human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine within 90 days of pregnancy are not at an increased risk for miscarriage, underscoring the safety of the vaccine. The proven safety of the bivalent HPV vaccine should quell the concerns of women and their health care practitioners.
The CDC now recommends that high-risk infants undergo postvaccination serologic testing between 9 and 12 months, updated from 9-18 months. The new vaccination interval can better cover at risk infants from HBV infection and also help ensure a higher adherence to the immunoprophylaxis protocol.
The staff of Contemporary Pediatrics has packed and is ready to depart for American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition in the nation’s capital.
Roughly a quarter of all college students are sexually victimized in some way, but many will never report their crime. Pediatricians can counsel college-bound patients about the risks and prevention strategies, and should learn to recognize the signs of unreported abuse.
Children in foster care suffer from a wide range of physical, emotional, and developmental impairments but generally receive inadequate care before, during, and after foster care placement. Early and frequent intervention by pediatricians is key to mitigating the trauma these children suffer and to improve long-term outcomes.
Malnutrition among pediatric patients is an ongoing problem that is often underdiagnosed. A new report examines alternate methods for recognizing malnutrition beyond anthropometric percentiles.
A third of US children and teens eat fast food daily, and more than 12% consume nearly half of their daily calories from fast food, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Staphylococcus aureus plays an important role in the pathogenesis and course of atopic dermatitis. Compared to the normal pediatric population, atopic patients are especially susceptible to colonization and recurrent infections of S aureus.
Barring a last minute reprieve, International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10) diagnostic coding went into effect the first of this month. If you read my March 2015, Peds v2.0 article on ICD-10 adoption-and heeded the advice contained therein-you have successfully implemented ICD-10, and everything is going smoothly now.
A healthy 10-year-old boy is brought to your office by his worried father for evaluation of an asymptomatic birthmark on his left ankle. It has grown proportionately and does not cause pain or interfere with normal function. What’s the diagnosis?
A nationally representative survey of more than 1000 mothers of infants aged 2 to 6 months showed that mothers report receiving little or inappropriate advice-even from physicians-about 5 key infant care practices: immunization, breastfeeding, sleep position, sleep location, and pacifier use.
After the implosion late last year of the 14-year effort for a comprehensive national study of the environmental effects on children, Congress has told the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to try again.
A skin manifestation can be a pediatrician’s first clue that a patient is being abused. Up to 90% of physical abuse victims present with cutaneous findings, such as bruises, lacerations, abrasions, burns, oral trauma, bite marks, and traumatic alopecia.
Of 32 neonates who died suddenly at a hospital in the United Kingdom and whose deaths remained unexplained after a thorough postmortem, 12 (37.5%) were born to mothers with a history of methadone use or use of drugs of addiction during pregnancy.
A 3- to 5-minute intervention delivered during routine pediatric visits and targeting 4 behaviors related to obesity-milk consumption, juice and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, television/screen time, and physical activity-decreased the rate at which body mass index (BMI) percentile increased in young children in a recent trial.
Where teens hang out affects how likely they are to engage in risky behavior.
Clearly, we touched a nerve when we invited you to put pen to paper to channel your feelings about the Maintenance of Certification program-in haiku form!
Individualized parental counseling focused on presenting a wide range of information and options is key factor in effective collaborative care for extremely preterm infants, says AAP.
Contemporary Pediatrics brings you 10 tips to make the switch to the ICD-10 coding system.
How fitting is it that the subject article for this first commentary would be on a topic that impacts all of our practices: Childhood obesity (“’F’ for ‘Fat’ Grading Weight Report Cards”). In it, Dr. Petrou discusses some of the controversies regarding legislation implemented in 24 states requiring mandatory body mass index (BMI) surveillance and screening programs in schools with ‘report cards’ to parents.
Adolescents can benefit from early screening and treatment of major depressive disorder initiated in their pediatrician’s office, according to a new draft recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force.
After the FDA endorsement, people worried that prescription abuse would rise and others felt like no real change would occur.
Busy PNPs and their fellow pediatric-focused APRNs recognize how important, yet sometimes difficult it is to maintain current clinical practice in a rapidly changing healthcare environment. NAPNAP is pleased to announce our new partnership with Contemporary Pediatrics.
A new report offers new information of what influences children's behavior toward alcohol and what pediatricians can do to curb underage drinking.
Since its approval nearly 20 years ago, emergency contraception therapies have changed a lot. One in 5 physicians hesitates to discuss them with their patients, but a new bulletin from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology seeks to open the discussion.
Adolescents who don’t get the healthcare they need become adults with poor health outcomes-and the problem doesn’t only boil down to cost.