Ecology of the Child: A Post-Modern View of Mental Health as it Relates to Nutrition and Brain Development

Time and Place

November 12, 2008
6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

St. Ambrose Church
7520 South Boulder Road
Boulder, Colorado 80303

Map

Registration

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Scott Shannon, MD

Child Psychiatrist and Holistic Physician

November 12, 2008

In this wide-ranging examination of modern pediatric mental health, Dr. Shannon challenges most of the fundamental assumptions of our current system and offers a new vision. His lecture highlights concerns with both the reliability and validity of our diagnostic system after a quick recap of the neuroscience of the child’s brain. The rapidly escalating use of psychiatric medications is contrasted with the current level of evidence for efficacy and safety for these tools.

Dr. Shannon sees many facets of the child’s environment (reduced sleep, school pressures, disconnected family life, escalating obesity, depressed mothers, intrusive media, poor nutrition, etc.) as triggers for rising psychiatric symptoms.

The second half of the presentation will review the nutritional foundation of brain growth and development. From this perspective Dr. Shannon outlines a natural supplement-based approach to bipolar and other mood disorders. He will offer treatment guidelines for other common psychiatric disorders across the lifespan that combine the existing evidence base with his thirty years of experience in holistic medicine.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this presentation, the participant will:

Understand how the concept of plasticity within the brain relates to mental health and environmental triggers.
Recall two evidenced based natural supplements for treating bipolar disorder.
Recall three evidenced based supplements for treating anxiety disorders.

About the Presenter

Scott Shannon, MD, has been instrumental in the creation of a holistic and integrative perspective in psychiatry for over a decade. Dr. Shannon joined the American Holistic Medical Association in 1978 as a founding member and served as President from 2000 to 2001. Academic Press published his textbook (the first in this field), Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Mental Health, in 2002. Rodale Press released Please Don’t Label My Child in 2007.

Recently, Dr. Shannon started the country’s first academically based Integrative Clinic in Child Psychiatry at the University of Colorado – Children’s Hospital in Denver, where he works as Assistant Clinical Professor. Beyond his private practice in Fort Collins, Dr. Shannon also writes and teaches extensively.