dr. joshua weiner joins us now. we want to talk about something that timely affects us, the oregon shooter who is said to have asburgers syndrome. many say there's no connection between asbergers and violence. do you agree? >> in general, yes. people with autistic spectrum disorders do have difficulty in general with managing their tempers. they have a low frustration tolerance and a harder time calming themselves down if they're disappointed or upset with something. i have one patient in my practice on the spectrum who punched his teacher and broke her ribs when he was upset with something she was doing. with all of that said, i would have no problems with my children hanging out with a kid who has a spectrum disorder. it's very, very uncommon for the vast majority of them to become really violent. >> it's said that only 5% of violent acts are committed by people with a mental problem and people with mental problems are more often the victims. what do you say about that? this one confuses me. i hear this i heard ot

dr. weiner to stick around. what is your concern about primary decisions treating kids who need mental care? >> if you need surgery on something, you want to see the surgeon who has done that surgery so many times they could do it with their eyes closed. same thing with mental health issues. sure, the pediatrician may be able to help out but they have not gone through the extensive training in o training required to treat kids. one thing this study showed that i found interesting, people are more likely to have their kids put on psychiatric medications if they're receiving the treatment just through the primary care physician than if they're seeking the help of a psychiatrist. it's not like psychiatrists are just seeing kids and writing prescriptions. as a psychiatrist we are sitting down with kids and families for a long time. meeting with them several times to do a thorough valuation. medication can be used in some cases, but it's not the answer always. >> does this raise the issue of whether primary care phys

dr. joshua weiner joins us. autism may be overdiagnosed in about 9% of children.ll us about that. >> there is overlap. the vast majority of kids on the spectrum will have many of the symptoms associated with adhd. that's where the confusion comes in, especially for these kids who are not severely impacted by the autism. >> autism is generally found in a child early, isn't it? before they go to school. adhd perhaps diagnosed after starting school? >> some more severe cases, the language delays in particular, those kids will be coming to parents attention earlier. at the age of 3 or 4. you're right, adhd tends to be diagnosed around the age of 7. but the thing is, if a child is exhibiting many signs that are concerning to parents, they're not engaging with other kids, they don't seem to be interested in parents, when parents come up to them and are coming home after a day of work, if a kid doesn't seem that interested or won't look at them, seems indifferent to things around them, parents need to take that seriously. even if the pediatrician says this is normal, may