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Child Psychiatry

In most European countries, child psychiatry has been a part of general psychiatry since the 1970s. This is related to the ever-growing standard of care for children and the understanding that early diagnosis and therapy of psychiatric disorders occurring in childhood is key to the development of these diseases at a later age.

Pediatric psychiatry covers a very wide age range, and specialists in this field need to have a broad understanding of the age specificities of mental functioning in the norm of newborns, young children, school-age children, early and late adolescence. Within the specialty there is also a more narrow profile of the age profile - child, adolescent or youth psychiatry.

Child psychiatry, besides medical specialty, also carries strong socio-psychological trends in the treatment of mental illnesses as part of a wider bio-psycho-social model of understanding this pathology.

Childhood mental disorders include:

• Generalized developmental disorders
• Specific developmental disorders
• Hyperkinetic disorders
• Behavioral disorders
• Emotional disorders
• Disorders of social functioning
• Mental retardation
• Affective disorder
• Psychotic disorders

In addition to the listed disorders, children's psychiatry also deals with the problems of child abuse, suicidal and self-defeating childhood behavior, and aggressive trends and manifestations in childhood and adolescence.