Pharmacotherapy and behaviour therapy--competition or cooperation?

This paper is part of a special section on 'psychopharmacotherapy in children'. The latter may be combined with behavioural treatments, but in children only in the field of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder treatment studies has this combination been investigated and proved to be more effective than any single treatment alone. As to the treatment of depressive disorder, school phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents, no controlled empirical studies on combined therapies exist. Nevertheless, positive results from adult studies (e.g. depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder) may be, with some modification, paralleled in children and adolescents. So far, there are no indications that the combination of medication and behavioural treatment has antagonistic effects. Thus, we would make a plea for combining psychopharmacotherapy and behaviour therapy in child and adolescent psychiatry.