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As Faculty of the British Association for Psychopharmacology course on child and adolescent psychopharmacology, we present here what we deem are the most common pitfalls, and how to avoid them, in child and adolescent psychopharmacology. In this paper, we specifically addressed common pitfalls in the pharmacological treatment of autism and intellectual disability, eating disorders, neuropsychiatric correlates of epilepsy, and psychosis. Pitfalls in relation to the treatment of other disorders are addressed in a separate paper (Part I)., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: SC declares honoraria and reimbursement for travel and accommodation expenses for lectures from the following non-profit associations: Association for Child and Adolescent Central Health (ACAMH), Canadian ADHD Alliance Resource (CADDRA), British Association of Pharmacology (BAP), Medice and from Healthcare Convention for educational activity on ADHD. HE is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). DN is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Applied Health Research (ARC) programme for Northwest London. CH is supported by a NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. CM has been a consultant to or has received honoraria from (has received honoraria as a consultant and/or advisor and/or for lectures) Angelini, British Association of Pharmacology (BAP), Compass, Esteve, Exeltis Janssen, Lundbeck, Neuraxpharm, Nuvelution, Otsuka, Pfizer, Servier and Sunovion outside the submitted work. The other authors declare no relevant conflicts of interest.

As Faculty of the British Association for Psychopharmacology course on child and adolescent psychopharmacology, we present here what we deem are the most common pitfalls, and how to avoid them, in child and adolescent psychopharmacology. In this paper, we specifically addressed common pitfalls in the pharmacological treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and related disorders, and tic disorder. Pitfalls in the treatment of other disorders are addressed in a separate paper (part II)., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: SC declares honoraria and reimbursement for travel and accommodation expenses for lectures from the following non-profit associations: Association for Child and Adolescent Central Health (ACAMH), Canadian ADHD Alliance Resource (CADDRA), British Association of Pharmacology (BAP), Medice and from Healthcare Convention for educational activity on ADHD. He is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR. DN is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Applied Health Research (ARC) programme for Northwest London. CH is supported by a NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. CM has been a consultant to or has received honoraria from (has received honoraria as a consultant and/or advisor and/or for lectures) Angelini, British Association of Pharmacology (BAP), Compass, Esteve, Exeltis Janssen, Lundbeck, Neuraxpharm, Nuvelution, Otsuka, Pfizer, Servier and Sunovion outside the submitted work. The other authors declare no relevant conflicts of interest.

The British Association for Psychopharmacology course on child and adolescent psychopharmacology has been run for more than 20 years and is currently a very popular course, attracting around 140 delegates/year from across the United Kingdom and abroad. As Faculty of recent sessions of the course, we have selected the most common questions we have been asked in recent years and provided evidence-based and/or expert-informed answers. We have included 27 questions and answers related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, epilepsy (in differential diagnosis or comorbid with mental health conditions), obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality disorders, psychotic spectrum disorders, and tics/Tourette syndrome in children and young people. We hope that this article will be helpful for prescribers in their daily clinical practice and we look forward to further, high-level evidence informing the answers to these and other questions in child and adolescent psychopharmacology.