Developmental Medicine and Dentistry Reviews & Reports

American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry Editorial Commentary: In this issue of the "Reviews and Reports", Dr. David Lyman and Dr. Clifton R. Tennison, Jr., report on the difficulty of assessment and treatment of mental illness in adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders who also have severe cognitive difficulties. They evaluate the major classes of psychotropics and provide a brief review of the usefulness of each. Unfortunately, there is little research into the unique medication responses by adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. This forces the clinician to use best practice from the world of children and adolescents without the unique metabolic disorders that they encounter in this special field. Because of the complexity and uncertainty associated with diagnosing mental illness in the face of cognitive difficulty the benefit-risk ratio is altered and obtaining adequate informed consent from the parent/guardian requires a higher level of duty on the part of the prescribing physician