Antipsychotic treatment of children and adolescents

作者：Mehler Wex Claudia^*

来源：Psychopharmakotherapie, 2010, 17(4): 175-182.

• Atypical antipsychotics
• psychopharmacotherapy
• children
• adolescents

Antipsychotic treatment of children and adolescents
The use of atypical antipsychotics in children and adolescents usually is off-label. Only just live randomized controlled trials on atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic minors have been published until today, implying only one study with placebo-control. However, atypical antipsychotics arc advantageous because of there more favourable profile of unwanted side effects, especially concerning extrapyramidal motor effects. Their receptor profile combining both dopamine D(2)- and serotonin 5-HT(2)-affinity supports not only antipsychotic but also affective effects. On the other hand, weight gain, metabolic and endocrinological changes as. well as cardiac irritations have to be considered. Since atypical antipsychotics as well as medium- and low-potency neuroleptics also exert sedative effects, they might also be applied for other indications like aggressive-impulsive conduct disorders, thought rigidity, mood lability or inner tension. In children and adolescents, titration has to be slower and in lower dosages, always implying careful drug monitoring of wanted and unwanted effects, in order to avoid ineffectiveness on the one hand or toxic events on the other hand. Therapeutic drug monitoring with laboratory controls of drug serum levels represents an additional useful tool for drug safety in this young population.

• 出版日期2010-8