文档介绍：QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Treatment of
Children with
Mental Disorders
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES • PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE • NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
A Note to Parents…
There has been public concern over reports that very
young children are being prescribed psychotropic medica-
tions.
The studies to date are plete, and much more needs
to be learned about young children who are treated with
medications for all kinds of illnesses. In the field of
mental health, new studies are needed to tell us what
the best treatments are for children with emotional and
behavioral disturbances.
Children are in a state of rapid change and growth during
their developmental years. Diagnosis and treatment of
mental disorders must be viewed with these changes in
mind. While some problems are short-lived and don’t
need treatment, others are persistent and very serious,
and parents should seek professional help for their
children.
Not long ago, it was thought that many brain disorders
such as anxiety disorders, depression, and bipolar disorder
began only after childhood. We now know they can begin
in early childhood. An estimated 1 in 10 children and
adolescents in the United States suffers from mental
illness severe enough to cause some level of impairment.
Fewer than 1 in 5 of these ill children receives treatment.
Perhaps the most studied, diagnosed, and tr