[Psychopharmacotherapy in child psychiatry (author's transl)]

The highest aim of every treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry is the encouragement of maturity. This also applies to pharmacotherapy with substances which reduce fear, suppress impulses, inhibit aggression, brighten the moods and promote efficiency. The indication for these should be made strictly in consideration of both the psychological development and biological maturity aspects as well as the family dynamic relation and interaction structure in which the child grew up. Psychopharmacotherapy must be limited to closely defined diseases, especially to psychotic disturbances, malignant tics, the hyperkinetic syndrome, pediatric emergencies and to supporting the treatment of enuresis or as concomitant medication in some disordered behaviors of abnormal mental and neurotic development. The administration of psychodrugs is moreover only to be considered if psychological measures alone are insufficient to help the child.