Should my child take medicine?
Dr. Kalikow helps parents decide.
Your Child in the Balance: An Insider’s
Guide for Parents to the Psychiatric Medicine Dilemma is a book
to help parents decide whether psychiatric medicine is the right choice
of treatment for their child. It’s about the shared decisionmaking
process between parents and doctor when evaluating medication as a
possible treatment.
Do psychiatric medicines benefit young people? How do we know? And, of
course, what are the risks and how are they evaluated? What does
medicine teach your child about dealing with life’s problems?
Whether you are adamantly for or against the use of medicine, or simply
confused about your choices, you will find both support and challenge
in this book. This is not a book that will tell you to use or not to
use medicine. It is a book that presents the balanced approach most
parents want. Although it forces you to ask yourself some tough
questions,
Your Child in the Balance will then help you decide if medicine
is the right treatment for your child.
Like so much of parenting, the decision to medicate your child is
inherently difficult. So much is at stake. It is a parent’s
responsibility to make the most considered decision for his or her
child. Your Child in the Balance will
help you do that. Using the stories of many patients, it gives parents
a way of thinking of the problem so that, without entangling emotions,
they can offer their child the best treatment available.
