Post by Amtram on Jun 23, 2014 11:53:57 GMT -5
ChildMind Institute has excellent advice for parents who have decided to medicate their children.
Children may not be able to communicate what changes they experience and whether or not they are good or bad. The article points out some good strategies for observing what different medications might do to a child, and emphasizes the importance of a good communicative relationship with the doctor. The thing I always like to add is that talking to adults or teens who have taken medications is often helpful. Because they are better able to articulate the first-person experience of positive and negative effects of medication, they can help you know how to ask your child what he/she might not be able to tell you on his/her own.
When a child starts taking psychoactive medication, success depends on several things. Obviously, it matters whether the treatment fits the symptoms. Do the problems he's having respond to this kind of medication? Not as obvious, but just as important, is whether he's getting the right dose.
The reason dosage is so important is that different kids can respond very differently to the same medication-even if they're about the same age and weight, and have about the same symptoms. There's no such thing as a standard or typical dose—there's only a range of doses that have been shown to be effective for different children. And the range is surprisingly wide.
That's why starting with a dose that's right down the middle of the range isn't a good idea. Even to two apparently similar kids, it's likely to be too little to be effective for one, and way too much for the other. This can be frustrating to families. One kid might quit taking the medication because it doesn't seem to work, and the other because it produces unpleasant side effects. They might blame the medication, but in both cases, the problem could be that they're taking the wrong dose.
How do you know if the clinician treating your child is doing a good job figuring out the best dose for him? Here we'll explain how doctors work with kids, and their parents, to arrive at the right amount of medication.
The reason dosage is so important is that different kids can respond very differently to the same medication-even if they're about the same age and weight, and have about the same symptoms. There's no such thing as a standard or typical dose—there's only a range of doses that have been shown to be effective for different children. And the range is surprisingly wide.
That's why starting with a dose that's right down the middle of the range isn't a good idea. Even to two apparently similar kids, it's likely to be too little to be effective for one, and way too much for the other. This can be frustrating to families. One kid might quit taking the medication because it doesn't seem to work, and the other because it produces unpleasant side effects. They might blame the medication, but in both cases, the problem could be that they're taking the wrong dose.
How do you know if the clinician treating your child is doing a good job figuring out the best dose for him? Here we'll explain how doctors work with kids, and their parents, to arrive at the right amount of medication.
Children may not be able to communicate what changes they experience and whether or not they are good or bad. The article points out some good strategies for observing what different medications might do to a child, and emphasizes the importance of a good communicative relationship with the doctor. The thing I always like to add is that talking to adults or teens who have taken medications is often helpful. Because they are better able to articulate the first-person experience of positive and negative effects of medication, they can help you know how to ask your child what he/she might not be able to tell you on his/her own.