The Use of Psychotropic Drugs in Children

Abstract

The clinical use, methods of evaluation, safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs in children are reviewed. It is concluded that only the stimulants have a clearly established place, but that the less studied antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs almost certainly have a place too. While the rather ill-defined hyperkinetic syndrome is the condition par excellence for drug therapy, other diagnostic entities, notably unsocialized, aggressive, and overanxious reactions, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, school phobia, and the childhood psychoses appear to be drug responsive in some cases.