Our remedies are only as good as the way in which we dispense them

That's the central premise of Thinking About Prescribing, a new volume that encourages pharmacotherapists to view the prescribing of a psychiatric medication to young patients not simply as part of a clinical visit, but rather as the beginning of an ongoing alliance with youth and their parents or legal guardians.

The book makes the case for a partnership that doesn't lean on psychiatric jargon or an encyclopedic list of side effects, but instead on measured candor, vulnerability, and—most importantly—time.

Thinking About Prescribing leverages the knowledge of more than two dozen experts as it tackles topics that include:

• The essential features of the Common Factors approach and the Y-model of psychotherapy, which highlights how relational aspects of pharmacotherapy are key to child & adolescent psychiatric practice, even for brief visits
• How best to utilize the 30-minute Brief Pharmacotherapy Visit (BPV), so that the alliance is nurtured and time is most efficiently utilized
• Techniques, adapted from evidence-based psychotherapies, to enhance medication adherence in diverse youth populations
• Approaches to adapt psychoeducation for culturally diverse populations, and consider why many youth & families may be skeptical of pharmacotherapeutic interventions
• Strategies to cultivate a pharmacotherapeutic alliance when engaging with patients and families via telehealth, including in the school setting
• Tips for pediatricians, advanced-practice clinicians, and other primary care providers who conduct pharmacotherapy

The chapters feature key takeaways that distill the most salient points and that aid in knowledge retention.

Rather than raise unrealistic expectations (two chapters acknowledge the reality of practicing when time and resources are scarce), the goal of this book is to help pharmacotherapists mitigate the stigma, apprehension, or resignation their patients may have and instead build and maintain a trusting relationship that will be key to successful therapeutic outcomes.

Shashank V. Joshi, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Education at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Graduate School of Education, Director of School Mental Health at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and a Faculty Advisor at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), in Stanford, California.

Andrés Martin, M.D., M.P.H., is the Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor, Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut. He is Medical Director of the Children's Psychiatric Inpatient Service at Yale New Haven Health, in New Haven, Connecticut.