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Believe in Your Child—and Yourself—Before You Believe in Medications

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Believe in Your Child—and Yourself—Before You Believe in Medications
If your child is struggling at school, it is nearly always better to explore nonpharmaceutical options, like behavioral training, before resorting to drugs. Irina Ali/Shutterstock
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Many parents that I work with ask the same question: “Should we medicate our boys?” Here are the basics you’ll want to consider:

There’s no way to predict what being on medications will be like for any particular child. There’s also no way to know ahead of time the side effects beyond those that most of us already worry about: sleep problems, attenuated height, decreased appetite, weight loss, possibly mood swings.

Anthony Rao
Anthony Rao
Author
Dr. Anthony Rao holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Vanderbilt University and trained as a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. For more than 20 years, Dr. Rao worked in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital and served as instructor at Harvard Medical School, where he trained psychologists and physicians in the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT.
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