We saw Dr Elkin a few years ago when our son was having lots of behavioral problems. He was the only ""child psychiatrist"" that our insurance would pay for who was accepting patients. I don't know how he is with adults, but please don't take your child to see this doctor. His office was not child friendly - lots of things that kids would be interested in but are not allowed to touch. We waited forever in the waiting room, until our son was bored and irritated, and then went into his office where there was nothing for a kid to do, which made him more frustrated. Then we had to discuss all of our son's problems right there in front of our son - we had naturally assumed that our son would be out of the room, in a playroom or something, while we discussed all of this. Nope. We talked to him for about 10 minutes, he barely looked at our son, and he whipped out a prescription pad and started writing out RXs for major psychotropic medications, none of which had been approved for use with children. AND he gave us a referral to check our son into Shoal Creek. Um what?? Our son was a handful, but he did not need to be checked into a hospital - how he could make that determination after ignoring him in his office for a total of ten minutes still confounds me. I tried repeatedly to get the doctor to advise us on kinds of therapy that might help - but all he would do is push drugs at us. And we fell for it. We put our son on those drugs, and it was hell. They changed our boy, he couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, broke out in hives, and eventually fell into a depression. After 6 months we took him everything, threw the drugs away, and never spoke to Dr. Elkin again. And our son, who Dr. Elkin felt needed psychotropic medication and a trip to a mental hospital? He outgrew all of his behavior problems within a year. He has been a lovely, happy, well-adjusted kid ever since. I feel horrible guilt for ever listening to a word this doctor said. I should have trusted my gut.
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