All Children's Hospital Foundation

Summer 2015 5 People ONE OF THE BEST examples of that collaboration is the new Mind Body Branch within the IBPS, which needs private philanthropy to begin. "The benefit to our many young patients of this much-needed Mind Body Branch is that it will give us the luxury of looking at total systems, in other words, treating the whole child – the physical and the psychological – which is often necessary for total healing," explains Mark Cavitt, M.D., the newly appointed director of the Mind Body Branch. Psychological services are already offered at All Children's Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine in collaboration with services from the University of South Florida. The creation of the Mind Body Branch will allow us to add staff and much-needed services. "One of the objectives of the IBPS overall is to develop a more robust offering of behavioral health services," explains Eric Storch, Ph.D., director of pediatric behavioral research for the Mind Body Branch, professor and ACH JHM Guild Endowed Chair, Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida. "We want more training and research and to further develop the programs and practical clinical services by hiring a neuro-psychologist and a consultation liaison specialist, which are so relevant to the kids we serve. One of my roles is to support psycho-social research areas within the Mind Body Branch because so many of the physical ailments we treat have psychological components to them. Addressing both allows for a healthier population." A top priority for the Mind Body Branch is recruiting and installing fellows and interns in order to step up research and clinical service immediately. MYKENZIE'S STORY: SEIZURES AND PSYCHOLOGY A great example of the overlap of psychological and physical problems – and the importance of research to guide treatment – is patient, Mykenzie, a teenager who came to All Children's with a combination of medical and psychological disorders primarily driven by anxiety. "Mykenzie's condition first manifested in seizure-like episodes which led to missing school," Cavitt says. "Her blood pressure became unstable, which meant she could collapse when she stood up. That provided a certain amount of anxiety." Mykenzie's mother Tiffany was first baffled, then scared. "We were knee deep before I realized how bad it was," Tiffany explains. "She was 13 when it started two years ago. She wasn't able to articulate what was going on, but she was terrified of everything and everyone. She had no friends. She couldn't leave the house and she didn't want us to leave. She was sure we'd die somehow. She would call every few minutes." The family lives several hours away from All Children's and for nearly a year attempted unsuccessfully to get help in their own town. Then the seizures began and they wound up in the emergency room at All Children's, where Mykenzie finally had access to multiple specialists. Much was ruled out before a psychological component was considered. Mykenzie was put on a program that included medication and cognitive behavioral therapy, which taught her to think through her anxiety as it was happening and put things in perspective. For example, doctors asked her to list everything that scared her. She included movie theaters because they are small and dark, so they gave her homework that involved progressive steps: first watching a movie at home, then watching with the lights out, then watching a scary movie. Doctors instructed her to reassure herself consciously that the movie wasn't real, that she was safe even in the dark. "We started seeing signs of improvement within a few weeks," Tiffany recalls. "Now she's a totally different kid. She is in three clubs at school, she is manager of the baseball team and kids are coming out of the woodwork to be her friends." One in five kids will have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder by the age of 18. That is at least four children per classroom. – MARK CAVITT, M.D., DIRECTOR, MIND BODY BRANCH Because of our research network, advanced therapies and a caring team, Mykenzie has benefitted greatly from treatment at ACH.

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