In this review, we summarized
drug administration strategies for childhood diseases, such as childhood
epilepsy and
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (
ADHD). Therapeutic
drug monitoring is recommended for most
antiepileptic drugs; however, dosage of these in the clinical setting is usually based solely on
body weight or age. Other factors to be considered are
dosage form and taste; these are particularly important in infants and toddlers as they affect the adherence to a given medicine and may impose a limitation on
drug administration. In addition, we should be cautious about such side-effects as the effect on appetite. Special attention should be paid if there is a history of long-time treatment during childhood, because appetite loss or stimulation might have had a substantial negative impact on growth during childhood. We also briefly summarized newly introduced
drug therapies for
spinal muscular atrophy. These include gene therapy and exon-skipping drugs, which increase the amount of functioning SMN2
protein in skeletal muscles. In particular, the focus of this treatment is on the age of the patient and copy number of the SMN2 gene, both of which are key parameters.