Pediatric psychopharmacology had its beginnings in the 1970s after the inaugural 1937 work of Charles Bradley (1902-1979) utilizing benzedrine for children with psychiatric problems. While acknowledging the major importance of psychotherapy for children and adolescents with mental health conditions, this Third edition celebrates the advances of pharmacologic agents in improving the lives of these young patients that have occurred over the past half century. Pediatric persons with mental health conditions can be helped with a variety of medications including stimulants, antidepressants (i.e., selective serotonin reuptate inhibitors, others), anxiolytic drugs, antipsychotics, medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD), other anti-addiction medications and a variety of other agents. Throughout the book's eleven chapters, important topics are considered such as what has been done in adult versus pediatric psychopharmacology, what is US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in adults versus children and adolescents, ratios of benefit versus adverse effects of medications (including potential links with suicidality) and what the future may hold based on past history as well as current research that will be found in the DSM-6 as well as other works. The editors are grateful for the many experts in pediatric psychopharmacology who have contributed their time and knowledge in pharmacologic agents for management of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.
