Child and adolescent psychiatry in Switzerland

Abstract

It is remarkable that the definition of child and adolescent psychiatry, as given by M. Tramer at the launching of the Zeitschrift für Kinderpsychiatrie in 1934, has remained essentially unchanged. He wrote, “Child psychiatry or pediatric psychiatry is that part of medicine which is concerned with psychologically abnormal children and adolescents”. He noted that the field of interest of child psychiatry overlaps with neurology, adult psychiatry and pediatrics, but that it occupies a special position for the following reasons: 1. the special research methods used; 2. the structure of the different forms of psychopathology, i.e., since time has a different significance in the development of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence (in psychological structure, the child is not simply an adult in smaller format); 3. the demands of therapy; and 4. the differing prognosis.