By Iridian Casarez, Photo: Redwood Pediatrics, North Coast Journal, December 16, 2021
Within the past year Mike Mangahas, a pediatrician at Open Door Community Health Clinic in Eureka, has seldom prescribed medications to patients with serious behavioral issues. Instead, he's using information from a survey about patients' childhood traumas — known as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs — to inform a more holistic model of care.
"I have been prescribing a lot less psychotropic medications and it's been easier to tease out, for example, if I should start a kid on ADHD medication or not," Mangahas said. "So, if a kid screens positive for ACEs and behavioral health concerns, I'll be very conservative and work on supporting exercise and nutrition and relationships and kind of all the stress-busting stuff that [California Surgeon General] Nadine Burke Harris talked about in her report first, and if that's not working or there's significant impairment at home or school, then that's when I start medication. For me, it's made it a lot easier for me to feel comfortable not jumping to meds."
Over at Redwood Pediatrics in Fortuna, pediatrician Evan Buxbaum and his team are doing the same, taking a more holistic approach with an understanding of the underlying causes of many medical conditions.
Comments (0)