Pediatric Psychosomatic Medicine Program

  1. Inpatient Pediatric Consult-Liaison Service
  2. Pediatric Psychosomatic Medicine Clinic
  3. Group Therapy Program for Youth with Chronic Medical Illness
  4. Individual Treatment program for Youth with Psychosomatic Illness

Inpatient Pediatric Consult-Liaison Service

The pediatric consult-liaison service provides acute consultation services to the inpatient pediatric services at the University of Chicago Hospitals including Mitchell Adult and Comer Children’s Hospitals. The service routinely evaluates children and adolescents for psychiatric needs pre-transplantation, during acute medical illness, and to help assist in coping with chronic illness. The service uses a range of therapeutic modalities including psychotherapy, play therapy, clinical hypnosis, medications, and family systems therapy.

Pediatric Psychosomatic Medicine Clinic

The pediatric psychosomatic medicine clinic evaluates and treats children and adolescents with complex and co-occurring medical and psychiatric disorders. The clinic sees patients of all ages, and draws referrals from the pediatric specialty services at Comer Children’s Hospital as well as from providers in the community.

Group Therapy Program for Youth with Chronic Medical Illness

Tina Drossos, Ph.D. and Sharon Hirsch, M.D. provide a group therapy program in psychosomatic medicine which is currently running 6-8 week sessions for those patients with chronic illness who need help adjusting to their illness in a social setting, and in adapting to return to school Patients ages 8-15 years old are eligible to enroll in this group.

A unique aspect of this service is a new liaison psychiatry collaboration with Generations of Hope Development Corporation in Champaign, Illinois. As part of this, the service is doing community-based consultation about mental health interventions for high-risk youth and families, and exploring the development of innovative interventions for these populations.