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Objectives: Evaluate how child and adolescent psychiatrists rate themselves regarding their knowledge and clinical skills in assessing interactions between non-prescribed complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and prescribed medications., Methodology: A brief questionnaire about the practice of asking patients about CAM use was given to child and adolescent psychiatrists., Results: The questionnaire was completed by 20 child and adolescent psychiatrists. Only 35% of the sample stated that they always asked about CAM use although 55% stated that they aware of the importance of prescribed drug interactions with CAM. Of the sample, 90% stated that they could recognize serotonin syndrome, but only 65% answered correctly to the description of the syndrome. Given a list of possible CAM that could interact with prescribed drugs to produce serotonin syndrome, only 10% identified all the drugs correctly., Conclusion: CAM training should be included in training programs and in continued education curriculums for practicing child psychiatrists.

Voluntary screening has shown to be an effective way to identify depressive symptoms and to provide adequate treatment. If a screening tool was to be used in a general Puerto Rican population, it should be validated in Spanish and be consistent with the particular response style of this group. The main objective of this research study is to assess if the Spanish translation of the Zung SDS is adequate to screen for depression in Puerto Ricans, and if the translation considers the sociocultural peculiarities of this group. Although the Zung SDS is presented as a self-report scale and was found to be reliable by Alpha coefficient and manageable by both the questioner and the participant, the Spanish version used in this activity presented interpretation difficulties. It is recommendable that a Spanish translation of this scale should be developed taking into consideration the particularities of the Puerto Rican population. The use of other screening tools that have already been validated as being culturally sensitive to Puerto Ricans could also be considered.