소아 정신 약물학

Pediatric Psychopharmacology

During the last decade, the field of pediatric psychopharmacology has made a great progress, perhaps mainly because of the advent of the DSM-III or DSM-III-R, improved research methodology, and development of various rating scales. Increased concern has been raised regarding reliable diagnosis and homogeneity of study populations, and in response to increased knowledge of the biology of various clinical entities, various psychoactive drugs have been tried. However, numerous questions still remain to be answered and future studies should be focused on these questions. 1) While DSM-III-R has allowed for a greater cohesion and consistency in the diagnosis and study of more reliable and homogenous subject groups, it is limited in its usefulness for childhood disorders. The prospect is for an improvement in DSM-1V, leading further reciprocal advances between diagnosis and medication specificity and efficacy. 2) Much research should be conducted on pharmacokinetics in pediatric populations. 3) The relationship between mechanism and site of action of drugs and aspects of etiology should be elucidated. 4) Developmental or maturational factors such as ontogenesis of monoamines or neuropeptides and their possible contributions to the phenomenology of illness and drug responses should be studied. 5) Behavioral approaches and psychotherapies should be quantified, their efficacy compared with pharmacology, and the interaction between nondrug and durg therapies should be answered.