ABSTRACT
The general principle of evidence-based medicine is to make clinical decisions based on the best available evidence of their effectiveness (Gray, 2001). In the same vein, practicing evidence-based psychopharmacology means to hold available evidence of medication effects as the main guiding factor when treating children with psychotropic medications. It has been correctly pointed out that evidence-based medicine and its applications to child psychiatry constitute an ideal toward which one should strive, but which also looks at times elusive or conditioned by economic concerns rather than scientific data (Gray, 2001; Fonagy et al, 2002). Traditionally, these considerations have been especially applicable to pediatric psychopharmacology because of the limited research data supporting treatment decisions.
