When your child’s doctor proposes a new medicine, past disappointments and future hopes collide.

There are questions, of course: What are the potential benefits? Are they worth the possible side effects? How will this medicine interact with other medications? Will insurance cover the cost?

Each trial is a balance between how awful things are right now and the healthier life that you pray your child can enjoy. The doubts that haunt you are the wreckage of past trials and the fear that things could get even worse.

When my daughter’s doctor recently suggested a new medication, I urged her to give it a try. Easy for me to say! I haven’t suffered the weight gain, the tremors, the agitation or the sedation that she has endured through so many trials that we have stopped counting. Her care is further complicated by ADHD, a condition that no medication has effectively treated without triggering mania.

My daughter refused the new medicine. I filled the prescription, but I don’t know if she will take it. She is an adult, and it is her choice. I can support my daughter, advise and empathize, but I can’t experience bipolar disorder as she does. I can’t share the many effects, but I can offer faith that things will get better.

I was heartened to read that 313 new medications are now in research and development for the treatment of mental illness, according to a recent pharmaceutical industry report. It is good to know that so many resources and so much research is targeted to help those with brain disorders, including bipolar disorder and depression.

Scientific advances of the past decade are cause for optimism that the future will bring even better diagnosis and treatment. Researchers are working to identify genetic markers for brain disorders that could lead to diagnostic blood tests and the right medicine, the first time.

I am hopeful that not-too-distant discoveries will make a life-changing difference for your child and for mine. Maybe even the end of medication trials!