A Parent's Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids

Start Low and Go Slow

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Pub Date Mar 04 2025 | Archive Date Feb 10 2025

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Description

A straightforward and helpful guidebook, cowritten by three top medical doctors, to answer the questions parents and caregivers have about medications and mental health

Whether you are considering medications for ADHD, anxiety, depression, or autism, this guide empowers you to ask your provider all the tough questions to ensure you are comfortable and confident in your journey of exploring psychiatric medications for your child.

For parents and caregivers, considering psychiatric medications for your child can be scary and overwhelming as you weigh the risks and benefits. A Parent’s Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids boils down the process of evaluating children and deciding whether to use medication, and then explores different classes of medications in detail, from the side effects to ongoing monitoring.

Three child psychiatrists from New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Alexander Kolevzon, MD; Robert Jaffe, MD; and Pilar Trelles, MD, combine their years of research and experience to deliver this straightforward, accessible Q&A guidebook for parents and caregivers.
A straightforward and helpful guidebook, cowritten by three top medical doctors, to answer the questions parents and caregivers have about medications and mental health

Whether you are considering...

Advance Praise

“Bravo! I love the question-and-answer format because it sounds like a conversation in my office. As a parent and a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I have tried to navigate the careful terrain of supporting parents and children in decisions about whether to treat psychiatric conditions with medication—Drs. Kolevzon, Jaffe, and Trelles have done a marvelous job in achieving this goal. A Parent’s Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids will be an important resource.”

―Victor Fornari, MD, Vice Chair for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell


“Parents, adolescents, curious children, pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and trainees from many medical disciplines: when you open A Parent’s Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids, you will probably feel relief and excitement that this book exists. You will also realize how essential it is to be a highly informed parent or an ideal prescriber. This guide is an engaging resource filled with clear answers to questions that parents often wish their providers addressed systematically, even when time is limited. It also specifically addresses medication, which is a crucial aspect of child and adolescent psychiatry treatment that is often the most distressing and the least understood by families. It is a beautifully practical approach to the very real possibility of fear and stigma overshadowing reality when it comes to this topic. This accomplishment is particularly significant given the urgent need for solutions to common challenges in delivering care as we navigate the current epidemic of child mental health needs.”

―Anne L. Glowinski, MD, MPE, Robert Porter Distinguished Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco


“When looking for trustworthy information on psychiatric medications for their children, parents often have to wade through stigmatized views, advice from well-wishers, and direct-to-consumer advertising. Bucking this trend, A Parent's Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids provides a new resource that is as approachable as it is comprehensive, as compassionate as it is evidence-based—in short, a book full of light, in a space so often consumed by heat.”

―Andrés Martin, MD, PhD, Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor, Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine


“Taking a no-nonsense approach, A Parent’s Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids answers parents’ most common and anxiety-provoking questions about treating their children with psychiatric medications in an evidence-based, gentle, and often humorous manner. Reading this book feels a lot like sitting around the dinner table with these kindhearted and compassionate authors, whose fine book I will certainly recommend to families.”

―Jess P. Shatkin, MD, MPH, Vice Chair for Education & Professor, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine


“As the parent of a profoundly autistic son with a history of very aggressive and self-injurious behavior, I know firsthand the challenges of finding the right psychiatric care. A Parent’s Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids is the guide I wish I had—offering practical, compassionate, and evidence-based advice to help families navigate tough decisions with confidence and hope."

―Amy S. F. Lutz, PhD, Vice President, National Council on Severe Autism


“Finally!! This is the book I wish I had when we first considered medication for my daughter with autism. Parents shouldn’t need a medical degree to understand their child’s medical options. And now they don’t!”

―Alison Singer, President, Autism Science Foundation

“Bravo! I love the question-and-answer format because it sounds like a conversation in my office. As a parent and a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I have tried to navigate the careful terrain of...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9798893960457
PRICE $15.99 (USD)
PAGES 160

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Featured Reviews

Thank you so much to Familius and NetGalley for the ebook to read and review.

In "A Parent's Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids," a team of impeccably trained child psychiatrists offer parents a concise guide to the several mental health and developmental-behavioral conditions, specifically: ADHD, anxiety, depression, or autism

They offer specific and excellent material to help parents build a foundation of knowledge. The book is highly concise and won't overwhelm parents. The book is well laid out. Each section covers a separate illness. The authors compiled the list of front line medications for those illnesses and explain common side effects. They also recommend specific questions for parents to ask their child's doctor.

This book will hugely benefit parents, whether or not they are already familiar with these diagnoses and current medical treatments.

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"A Parent's Guide to Starting Psychiatric Medications for Kids" is written in combination by three Medical Doctors to provide information to parents who are weighing the pros and cons of the use of psychiatric medications to help their children cope with mental health symptoms. The authors state that their main goal of this book is to empower parents to ask their providers all of the necessary information to ensure that parents feel comfortable and confident when moving forward with use of psychiatric medications. The format of this guide is question-and-answer style, with each chapter containing multiple commonly asked questions related to the use of psychiatric medications for children, followed by the authors' responses and insight. I appreciated the inclusion of the process of children's medications becoming "approved", a section which includes multiple commonly asked questions by parents. Common terminology is also explained in easy-to-digest language, including terms some parents may not be familiar with, such as "half-life", "efficacy", "titration", and more.

The book then focuses on 3 major categorizations of medications, including: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medications, Antidepressant and Antianxiety Medications, and Antipsychotic and Mood-Stabilizing Medications. Although this information fits into just 3 sections, it is a very comprehensive look at the most commonly used medications for the most commonly presenting symptoms in child and adolescent psychiatric clinics. I was impressed that this book included diagrams and thorough scientific (yet, relatively easy to comprehend) descriptions of the mechanism of action for most of the medications that are covered in the book. These portions show and describe exactly how the medications are working in and impacting the brain. This information may be important for many families to comprehend, but missing from typical evaluations with providers. Overall, I found this book to be a very helpful and comprehensive guide. As a child/adolescent mental health provider, I would recommend this book as a resource to parents. It will be interesting to see if this guide continues to be updated with new versions as medications continue to grow and our knowledge expands!

Thank you to NetGalley and Familius for providing me with an early ARC digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

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