Promoting adherence to psychotropic medication for youth-part 1.

Failure to adhere to medication regimens can lead to unnecessary disease progression, disease complications, reduced functional abilities, lower quality of life, and even death. Medication adherence for children taking psychotropic agents poses many special challenges for health care professionals, as there is a little empirical basis for improving adherence. In Part 1 of this two-part series, the limited literature on the topic of psychotropic medication adherence for youth is reviewed.