Topics: Child Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | PTSD

In 2011, we wrote a review of medications for PTSD in children and found, unfortunately, that data to inform true evidence-based practice was scant. There are still no psychotropic medications that have been proven effective in randomized controlled trials for children with PTSD and there are no FDA approved medications for this population.

Topics: Antidepressants | Anxiety Disorder | Child Psychiatry | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | Psychotherapy | PTSD

Learn about Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) and its use with young patients in an interview with Glenn Saxe, MD, Arnold Simon professor and chair, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and director, the Child Study Center.

Topics: Autism Spectrum Disorder | Psychotherapy

Autism is fairly common and is extremely hard to treat. A couple of antipsychotics (Risperdal, Abilify) can help decrease the agitation common in autism, and some behavior therapies can improve the ability to interact with others. But these behavioral techniques have only been studied in the short term—which is not very helpful, because autism is a long term problem.

Topics: Antipsychotics | Research Updates

For better or worse, we are prescribing atypical antipsychotics more frequently in children. Some of this is due to new FDA indications for kids (autism, psychotic disorders, and bipolar disorder), but much of the increase is driven by off-label use (Tourette’s, ADHD, OCD, depression, conduct disorder and impulse control disorders).