Pediatric Psychopharmacology

Abstract

This chapter informs school psychologists about recent growth in the use of psychotropic drugs with children and adolescents, and related controversies (e.g., polypharmacy, off-label prescribing, drug industry marketing practices, and publication biases). It describes a potential role as "knowledge brokers" for school psychologists with appropriate competencies to assist decision-makers in selecting drug, psychosocial, or combination treatments. The chapter reviews safety concerns, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings and advisories, and common drug side effects and interaction effects. It reviews efficacy evidence, including FDA drug indications and approvals, randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses of RCTs. The chapter identifies several future research directions which school psychologists may be uniquely qualified to pursue.