Abstract
Child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy comprises the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation of neuropsychiatric and developmental disorders, as well as behavior disturbances during childhood and adolescence. The need for a separated psychiatric discipline for children and adolescents results from age-dependent characteristics of mental disorders, strongly influenced by rapidly alternating stages of the neurobiological and social development in this period of life. The discipline of child and adolescent psychiatry is acknowledged as a medical speciality or subspecialty in many countries; however it will still need much effort to offer a specialized child mental health service worldwide. This article provides an overview about the historical development of child psychiatry in different cultural regions, focusing on the development in Europe and the USA. A distinction is made regarding the diagnostical classification system for mental disorders in childhood and adolescence in comparison to the classification system in general psychiatry. Principles of child-specific assessment and treatment are described. Further, some future perspectives in the development of a more biological influenced child psychiatry are discussed as well as the needs of a modern child psychiatry in developing countries.
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