ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is the use of medications for psychiatric disorders commonly associated with child maltreatment. It was written to help the treating psychiatrist and the treating clinician understand both the adverse biological effects of maltreatment and the rationale for using medications to attenuate these effects. For the purposes of this chapter, child maltreatment is defined as neglect (including emotional neglect, which is defined as witnessing domestic violence by omission [failure to protect]), physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment (which includes verbal threats to the child and witnessing domestic violence by commission).
