Development of the first consensus guidelines for therapeutic drug monitoring in Neuropsychopharmacology for children and adolescents

The number of studies on therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in children and adolescents treated with psychotropic drugs has steadily increased in recent years. Evidence-based data on dose-concentration ratios as well as concentration-effect relationships are now available for several of the most commonly used antidepressants and antipsychotics in this age group. Despite remaining knowledge gaps, we believe that 20 years after the publication of the first consensus guidelines on TDM of neuropsychiatric drugs by the TDM task force of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Neuropsychopharmakologie und Pharmakopsychiatrie (AGNP), the conditions are now in place for the publication of the first expert guidelines on TDM in child and adolescent psychiatry. We report on the consensus meeting of the TDM-KJP expert group – a collaboration between the AGNP working group "Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology" and members of the "Competence Network TDM in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry" to develop and define (preliminary) therapeutic reference ranges for selected antipsychotics and antidepressants for the use in children and adolescents.