(National Post) Alberta doctor aims to treat childhood depression with magnetic stimulation

Dr. Frank MacMaster wants people to rethink mental illness in children.

“The knee-jerk reactions are, ”˜They must be terrible parents, or ”˜The kid’s just faking, stop it.’ How do you tell a kid with obsessive compulsive disorder to just stop it? Or, worse, ”˜Don’t tell anyone, keep it a secret,’” says MacMaster, a pediatric neurobiologist and researcher recruited from Detroit a year ago to work at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

He points to a 2008 poll that found 46% of Canadians think people use the term mental illness as an excuse for bad behaviour.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * International News & Commentary, Canada, Children, Health & Medicine, Psychology