The extent to which antidepressants are effective for pediatric depression continues to stir controversy, as discussed in this issue of CCPR.

Psychotropic Drug Prescriber’s Survival Guide: Ethical Mental Health Treatment in the Age of Big Pharma.
Treating Child & Adolescent Mental Illness, A Practical All-in-One Guide.

Depression in teenagers can present quite differently from both adults and younger kids. Can you help us to understand how to go about diagnosing depression in teens?

Dosing stimulants is never easy. There are various rules of thumb—for example, 0.5 mg/kg for amphetamine preparations and 1 mg/kg for methylphenidate preparations—but these have not been empirically validated.

Children with psychiatric disorders often present with insomnia in addition to their primary symptoms. How should we treat insomnia in children?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Making the decision to put a child on a psychiatric medication is hard enough. The process of discussing this possibility with parents can be even more challenging.

Many parents are understandably reluctant to begin their children on psychiatric medication, and indeed, in many cases this is inappropriate as a first step.

Every child has a family. Sometimes families are difficult and sometimes they are nontraditional. But children live in families and most often their families are their greatest resources and the medium by which children can improve.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping daily television viewing to no more than two hours per day, on the basis of research linking excessive TV to behavioral problem, poor body image, and other issues (AAP Policy Statement, Pediatrics 2001;107(2):423–426).