...Pediatricians and family doctors handle the majority of office visits for children being medicated for A.D.H.D., according to a 2012 study in the journal Academic Pediatrics. Most experts blame the relative rarity of child psychiatrists: There are only 8,300 in the United States, compared with 54,000 board-certified general pediatricians, according to their professional organizations’ statistics. The result is that some rural families must drive 100 miles or more for an appointment with a child psychiatrist or neurologist, who often have long waiting lists and accept insurance less often than a family pediatrician.
Yet many practicing pediatricians, family doctors and certified nurse practitioners say they have received little training to prepare for today’s rising number of families asking that their children receive mental-health evaluations. Pediatric residency programs since 1997 have been required to include a month on developmental-behavioral pediatrics, a category into which A.D.H.D. can fall. But many doctors say the actual programs can vary widely and cover too many conditions too briefly.
...Many postgraduate and web-based continuing medical education classes are staffed and shaped by pharmaceutical companies, raising concern about bias toward encouraging diagnoses and subsequent prescriptions. Wary of this, Dr. Wittert and Ms. Hellman said they were immediately drawn to Dr. [Peter] Jensen’s seminars, held by the Resource for Advancing Children’s Health Institute, the nonprofit he founded in 2006. About 2,000 health providers have paid about $2,000 for intensive three-day sessions, which Dr. Jensen holds about 10 times a year across the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/health/doctors-train-to-evaluate-anxiety-cases-in-children.html
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