Department of Psychiatry

UVM Medical Center child psychiatrist Steven Schlozman, M.D., director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families and associate professor of psychiatry at the Larner College of Medicine

(MAY 21, 2024) UVM Medical Center child psychiatrist Steven Schlozman, M.D., director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families and associate professor of psychiatry at the Larner College of Medicine, spoke with the Milton Independent about what’s on the minds of Vermont teenagers.

Schlozman has seen his share of teens struggling to make sense of the world. But in the last decade, he has noticed this group’s tendency to struggle with anxiety and depression has been compounded by increasing political polarization, the rising cost of living, and climate change, among other social issues. “I mean, kids had political opinions before, but they were more concerned about their relationships,” he said. Schlozman attributes this difference partially to the rise in popularity of social media and more information being available on the Internet.

Issues with impulsivity and negative mood are more likely to occur in teens because the brain tends to myelinate, or mature, from the bottom of the brain upward, he explained. This tends to make teens susceptible to parts of the brain that are more impulsive, such as the amygdala, a primitive part that controls responses to emotions.

Teens also tend to get emotionally elevated faster than adults because the parts of the brain currently developing don’t have as much of a chance to communicate with parts of the brain that are higher up, like the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for more rational thought processes, he said.

Schlozman enjoys helping teens come up with solutions to their mental health challenges and helping them find ways to implement them.

“I love the work. It’s not great that people are suffering, but the complicated nature of it is pretty special, because humans are pretty special, and kids especially,” he said.