Michael G. Aman – författare

information. This book aims to do this for practitioners, professionals in health, welfare, and education, and interested laypersons, including parents. This is no easy task, since the levels of technical knowledge vary from that of the special education teacher seeking information about the drugs that many such pupils will be receiving, to that of the modern young child and adolescent psychiatrist whose grasp of the difficult fields of pharmacokinetics (how drugs are absorbed, distributed, and eliminated) and neurotransmitter physiology (via which most psychoactive drugs work) is daunting to the editors, who grew up in the bucolic clinical-empirical era. Inevitably there are sections of the book that will prove too technical for any except the medically qualified, but considerable effort has been applied to make much of the text, especially that discussing the clinical uses and side effects of the drugs, comprehensible to anyone used to getting information by reading. We also take comfort in the fact that many of the major contributions in pediatric psychophar­ macology have been made by nonmedical professionals, notably psychologists, suggesting that an audience beyond the medically qualified is practicable. One other problem confronted us-whether to organize the book by psycho­ pathological symptoms (e.g., hyperactivity) and disorders (e.g., autism) or by drugs.

Incorporating developments in pharmacology and therapy, this revised second edition is a quick reference for those who prescribe psychotrophic drugs for young people. New and notable features include: discussions of new drugs and health supplements; revised diagnostic terminology that accords with current DSM-IV nomenclature; reports on anti-epileptic medications; guidelines for the appropriate use of psychoactive medications; and instruction on the monitoring of physical, behavioural, and cognitive effects of various drugs.