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Evidence Lacking: Local Doctor On Effectively Treating Traumatic Stress In Kids

Recent tragedies in Connecticut and Colorado have elevated the discussion around firearms and more recently, around how to best respond to kids who’ve experienced trauma like a school shooting or community violence.

But despite thousands of studies that explore various interventions, the evidence on what is actually most effective and what works is quite lacking. That’s according to a review published today in the Journal Pediatrics.

Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician for 17 years at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, weighed in on the findings in a commentary in the journal.

Dr. Dowd told KCUR that the newly published review points to the current difficulties in designing studies on the effectiveness of such interventions. But she also says it serves as a wake-up call to people in all disciplines - physicians, neurologists, psychologists and the like - focused on treating and understanding traumatic stress in children.

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