The use of psychotropic medication for people with severe disabilities andchallenging behavior: Current status and future directions

People with severe disabilities who engage in challenging behavior are ofte n prescribed psychotropic medication as a form of intervention Although the goal of the medication is to reduce challenging behavior, limited empirica l evidence is available to support the we of psychotropic intervention for people with severe disabilities. However, across a range of drug classes ba sic research suggests that many psychotropic medications selectively affect dimensions of behavior that could be of benefit in reducing challenging be havior. Currently, researchers cannot demonstrate whether most drugs prescr ibed to reduce challenging behavior are effective or predict when adverse s ide effects will emerge from their use. In this article we review the basic literature on behavioral pharmacology and integrate those findings with ex isting applied research to update JASH readers regarding the status of psyc hotropic medication. From this review, we present a set of suggestions that include: (a) improving research practices, (b) increasing the diversity of individuals involved in decision-making processes regarding medication use , and (c) developing consumer-friendly strategies for monitoring drug effec ts.