title: [Drug therapy of early-childhood minimal brain damage].
abstract: Drug therapy in a child with juvenile psychoorganic syndrome is only one part of a comprehensive therapeutic program in which the main emphasis is on training and education, which are sometimes accompanied by psychotherapy. In many cases drug therapy is totally unnecessary. It may however provide essential support for the efforts of educators and therapists and is sometimes the factor which renders these possible at all. Not all symptoms respond equally well: the best results are obtained in disorders of drive and often in psychogenic disorders which have developed on the basis of the psychoorganic syndrome. Promotion of personality development, which is virtually always retarded in the child with psychoorganic syndrome, remains the exclusive preserve of training. Drug administration has psychogenic as well as chemical effects. It depends to a large extent on the reaction of the environment to the fact that drugs are being given at all, and to the behavioral changes exhibited by the treated child. Drug effects are thus modified, and, with time, determined by the environment, and thus in many cases treatment is possible only on a short-term or (sometimes) periodic basis. Where treatment is on a long-term basis the danger of drug dependency must be borne in mind, since patients with psychoorganic syndrome are particularly exposed to the risk of addiction. For this reason care is necessary in administering amphetamine-type substances. These drug should not be prescribed from puberty onwards; previously initiated treatment with them should be terminated before purberty. It should however be pointed out that the results registered with amphetamines and drugs with similar effect can usually be obtained equally with drugs involving fewer risks in this respect.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000662:Amphetamines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D011627:Puberty; D013997:Time Factors; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000662:Amphetamines; D014149:Tranquilizing Agents
vernacular_title: Medikamentoese therapie des fruehkindlichen minimalen hirnschadens