Psychopharmacology
The practice of talking about and prescribing medicine is very much about asking the right questions, setting the right mood and otherwise creating and maintaining an environment that is conducive to assuring the best outcomes for the patient. While there are standard questions and approaches that should be used, things can be a lot different when a young minor child is involved.
The first thing to answer to is the main and first three questions that could or should be asked in light of the case study details about the eight-year-old patient in question. The basic situation is that the girl is in the doctor's office with a cold or other respiratory issue but that is far from her only medical issue. Indeed, she is also diagnosed ADD and/or oppositional defiant disorder. Given that the child is so long and there is obviously a mental issue at hand, regardless of what it actually is, the parent should be the subject of the questions . . . not the child. The first question the author...
Second, the author would ask what resources and other things that are being used to offset the fact that she is completely and obviously overwhelmed and it is creating (or aggravating) issues with the child. Third, the author would ask what, if any, problems are present with the other child.
As far as the proper physical exams and diagnostic tests that could or should be used in this situation, there are the usual examples such as bloodwork, the proper screening questions and quizzes for the child (and the mother) with a laser focus on getting answers that are complete, honest and otherwise accurate. As for a major question that could be asked that has not already been addressed is whether the child had issues before the father left. Of course, it is clear that the presence of a sibling is a pain point for the child. Even so, the primary and major catalysts need to be fettered out and it is fairly clear here that the father's absence is a major cause of the problems. His distance and lack of involvement with the child needs to be addressed and changed if at all possible.
As for differential diagnoses, it is clear ADD and/or ODD are the main suspects (Antunez, Osa, Granero & Ezpeleta, 2016;…
