The Future of Research and Practice in Behavioral Disorders: Psychopharmacology and Its School Implications

Research and practice in special education have only begun to incorporate interventions from other disciplines. Child and adolescent psychopharmacology recently has begun to assert itself as a primary intervention in treatment of children with disruptive behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Recent findings in this area will be reviewed along with a brief review of medications used for children with mood or schizophrenic disorders. The article concludes with a discussion of collaborative practice with physicians and families in multimodal treatment of children with emotional and behavioral disorders. The authors argue that effective special education practice demands such collaboration.