The Yeshiva University Medical Ethics Society’s ninth annual conference took place on Sunday, October 25th, 2015. Eight highly-credentialed and esteemed panelists spoke to an eager audience on topics related to pediatric mental and physical health.
Rabbi Dr. Barry Holzer and Dr. David Pelcovitz spoke on the first panel, titled “The Role of Family and Friends in Confronting Adolescent Suicide and Depression.” The sensitive and informative discussion educated attendees about the multi-faceted aspects of teenage depression.
Teenage depression, they explained, does not look like adult depression; its main symptoms include irritability, extreme sensitivity to criticism and extreme hopelessness, which leads to boredom, fatigue, aches and pains, internet addiction and self-harm. Furthermore, 80% of young adults who commit suicide verbalize their pain beforehand, leading one to believe that many suicides may have been preventable.
According to experts, the best thing a friend can do when a teenager speaks of his desire to hurt himself or to end the pain that he is feeling is to A.C.T.: acknowledge the pain, care for the speaker, and tell a responsible adult. Adolescent suicide and depression are ubiquitous and sensitive issues that require societal awareness, education and responsibility.
The next panel was a conversation about alcohol abuse in children and why vaccinating children is not only halachikally permissible, but encouraged. Dr. Jay Mayefsky outlined the statistics as follows: about a third of Americans abuse alcohol while one in ten Jews abuse alcohol.
Recently, there has been an uptick in teenage drinking. This is an alarming trend considering that alcohol is strongly associated with the top three causes of death for teenagers: homicide, suicide and car crashes. Chronic alcohol exposure can affect brain growth and development, especially in young adults, and there is no known cure for alcoholism.
Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger provided a halachik stance and personal perspective on alcohol consumption as a religious authority. He commented that the rise of drinking in adolescents is due to greater acceptance, more efficacious marketing and the desire to be happy, which teenagers confuse with the euphoria-inducing effects of alcohol. Rabbi Neuberger stressed that halacha absolutely does not condone getting drunk to be happy, refuting the common erroneous view.
Dr. Susan Schulman then spoke about vaccines and the false rumors surrounding them, detailing the history of these rumors and the many legitimate sources that dispute them. It is much safer to be vaccinated than not vaccinated, she explained; Rabbi Neuberger added that once the public has accepted a medical approach, even if this approach has some risk, it should be performed.
A fascinating discussion of ADHD in children came from Dr. Yoni Schwab and Dr. Glenn Hirsch for the last panel. They briefly chronicled the history of ADHD and its treatment, describing the two types of ADHD: the “inattentive” and the “hyperactive”. Either way, they explained, ADHD is significantly impairing; it can lead to injuries, bad school performance, poor social skills, increased conflict, low self esteem, drug or alcohol abuse and depression.
ADHD can be defined as “a lack of controlling one’s own behavior”; children with the disorder act before they think about their actions’ repercussions and they have trouble self-regulating their actions, as well. Both doctors stressed that benzedrine is a very effective medicine in treating ADHD, yet 20% of children diagnosed with ADHD are not medicated. Support was expressed for both behavior and psychopharmaceutical therapy, a fusion of the two being the most effective form of treatment.
The Medical Ethics conference was informative and comprehensive. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive; said Rebecca Garber, president of the Yeshiva University Medical Ethics Society, “Many people came up to me during the conference and applauded us for having the courage to openly discuss these topics.”
You can find out more about the Yeshiva University Medical Ethics Society and hear recordings of the above-discussed panels here.