CABS Clinic Optional Rotation

For my optional rotation, I spent three weeks in the Children and Adolescent Bipolar Spectrum Services (CABS) clinic. This clinic is staffed by psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses who help to diagnose children and adolescents with Bipolar Disorder in order to provide them with appropriate care and early intervention. The CABs clinic offers both inpatient and outpatient treatments, and is involved with a number of different research studies. The BIOS Family Study is one such research study that is investigating the recurrence risk of Bipolar Disorder in children of individuals with Bipolar Disorder.

Throughout my rotation, I was able to acquire a greater understanding about psychiatry and observe different family dynamics. It was often difficult to appreciate everything that was going on with a family during a short appointment visit, and information gained overtime from multiple sessions was very helpful to best understand patients’ mood patterns. Assessing how the parent was doing during a follow-up session was a good indicator of how a child had been doing at home.

In many instances, it was beneficial to speak separately with different family members to learn more about how the child was doing based on different perspectives. I had the opportunity to observe the varying strategies that clinic staff used to facilitate conversations between family members and to engage everyone in a counseling session.

Like any medical condition, patients with supportive parents or family members seemed to do better with managing stressors, and learning different problem solving and coping strategies. When multiple family members, such as a parent and child, were affected with Bipolar Disorder or another mental health condition, it was often more difficult for the child to manage their symptoms. The importance of assessing the health and well-being of a care giver is essential in all areas of health-care, including genetic counseling.

This rotation gave me the opportunity to observe different assessment and counseling techniques that are transferable to genetic counseling. At the end of my rotation, I gave a presentation to the clinic staff where we discussed psychiatric genetic counseling as well as risk communication with patients. This rotation was a great experience, and I would like to say a big thank you to all of the wonderful staff at the CABS Clinic!

To learn more about the CABS Clinic in Pittsburgh, which is one of the first clinics of its kind in North America, visit http://www.pediatricbipolar.pitt.edu/

-Amy Davis, class of 2016