Complex Cases in Pediatric Neuropsychiatry

Differential Diagnosis in Pediatric Neuropsychiatry: My Child is not Acting Herself! provides basic diagnosis and treatment tactics, along with the tools that clinicians need to perform both a psychiatric and neurological “consultation,” including differential diagnoses and questions to ask. Readers are then offered the neuropsychiatric details of the particular illness that has afflicted sample patients, along with treatment guidelines offered to said patient and their parents. Cases presented include the following topics: Absence Seizures, ESES, Myotonic Dystrophy, Adrenal Leukodystrophy, ADHD with Comorbidities, Wilson’s Disease, ASD, Schizophrenia, Astrocytoma with Hypoactive Delirium, Systemic Lupus Erythematous, Traumatic Brain Injury, OCD, Tourette’s, Klein Levin Syndrome, and more.

• Presents the most complexes cases in pediatric neuropsychiatry
• Reviews the neuroimaging and neuropsychological tests for each case
• Highlights the difficulties in conveying the complexity of the diagnosis to patients and families and provides strategies for clinicians
• Provides reviews of pertinent literature from both neurological and psychiatric perspectives to discussed cases
• Includes questions at the end of each chapter on the illness and closely related conditions

Psychiatrist, neurologists, neuropsychiatrist, psychiatry and neuropsychiatric fellows, neurosurgeons. Neurology and psychiatry faculty, pediatricians, family practitioners

1. Introduction
2. “My Child Cannot Pay Attention”
A. Absence Seizures
B. Adrenal Leukodystrophy
C. ESES
D. Narcolepsy
E. Myotonic Dystrophy
F. ADHD with Comorbidities
G. Lead Exposure
3. “My Child is Acting Very Strangely”
A. NMDA receptor Encephalitis-
B. Synthetic Marijuana-
C. Post-ictal psychosis
D. Wilson’s Disease
E. Hypoparathyroidism
F. ASD
G. Schizophrenia
H. Anticholinergic vs. serotonin syndrome
4. “My Child Won’t Get Out of Bed”
A. Systemic Lupus Erythematus
B. Astrocytoma with Hypoactive Delirium
C. Catatonia in a Patient with Intellectual Disability
D. Adjustment Reaction to Multiple Sclerosis
E. Major Depressive Disorder in a Patient with Epilepsy
5. “My Child Has Turned Into the Hulk”
A. Traumatic Brain Injury
B. Mood Dysregulation with Levetiracetam-
C. Aggression with steroid treatment
D. Oppositional Defiant Disorder as Response to Neurological Disease
6. “My Child is Stuck”
A. Tourettes vs. OCD
B. PANDAS/ PANS
7. “My Child Can’t Sleep”
A. Primary Insomnia
B. Klein Levin Syndrome
C. Anxiety
D. Obstructive Sleep Apnea leading to Behavioral Problems
8. “My Child Has Been Making Strange Movements”
A. Functional Tremor
B. Chorea After Major Stressor (initially thought conversion but found to have SLE)
C. Epilepsy and PNES
D. Frontal Lobe Seizure
E. Extrapyramidal symptoms from Antipsychotic Withdrawal
9. “My Child Can No Longer…”
A. Functional Vision Loss
B. Functional Paralysis
C. Transient Global Amnesia
D. Functional Aphasia