Avondale resident Dr. Stuart Kaplan, a leading child psychiatrist, author, and researcher, has died at 82, writes Abraham Gutman for the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Kaplan was chief of child psychiatry at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and recently a part-time physician at Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems in Kennett Square.  

In the 1990s, he was a pioneer in identifying what he called a “problematic fad” in his field, which was misdiagnosing children with bipolar disorder and giving them medication inappropriately. Kaplan’s 2011 book, Your Child Does Not Have Bipolar Disorder, details these findings.  

“He was brave, very brave, to really take on the field and write that book and be public about it. There was a lot of backlash,” said his wife, Joan Busner Kaplan, who remembers him as “an unbelievable, remarkable person.” 

In addition to his numerous other titles, Kaplan was a lieutenant commander in the Navy. His passions extended beyond psychiatry and included sailing, philosophy, and history. 

Read more about Dr. Stuart Kaplan in the Philadelphia Inquirer.