Children and adolescents between psyche and soma. The responsibility of mental health care

Psychiatric disorders are frequent in children and adolescents and cause impairment, disability and multiple handicaps. These disorders are frequently missed by primary care physicians, which results in diagnostic and therapeutic delay. There are many reasons for these children not to be diagnosed, including wait times, stigmatisation as well as socio-economic and other disparities. Scientific findings of the last decade make it clear that the care of children and adolescents must be expanded with respect to process-oriented and development-related care (e.g. pediatric education, primary care) to provide better understanding and better support to children at risk. At the same time, health care policy must be changed in order to take into account partially evidence-based knowledge about brain research, epigenetics etc.