DEFINITION

• Child psychiatry is centered on the assessment, treatment, and prevention of mental health problems in children and adolescents.
  • Unfortunately, children and adolescents can experience significant difficulties in emotion regulation, cognition, and behavior that cause marked impairments in functioning.
• Interest in childhood development first emerged in the 18^th century.
  • French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s major novel, Émile, focused on the physical, emotional, and social development of children through education[1].
• In the latter half of the 19^th century, European psychiatrists including Emminghaus, Manheimer, and Moreau de Tours described childhood psychopathology based upon diagnostic classifications created for adults[2].
• In 1930, the first academic child psychiatry department was founded by Dr. Leo Kanner, under the direction of Dr. Adolf Meyer, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Kanner wrote the first English-language textbook in the field titled Child Psychiatry in 1935 and was also a pioneer in describing the clinical syndrome of autism[3].
• Child and adolescent psychiatry emerged as an established medical specialty in 1953 through the founding of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry[1].
  
  • The organization is now known as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.