This book contains all of the abstracts of the 16th World Congress of the Interna tional Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IA CAPAP) held in Berlin, Aug 22-26, 2004. The abstracts are arranged according to the type of session (main lecture, state of the art lecture, symposium, workshop, course, or poster exhibition) and the day of the conference. The abstracts of the industry-sponsored sessions are also in cluded. A subject index is provided to help track themes of special interest. The author index allows you to find the abstract authors and the address of the first author for direct contact. The general theme of the congress "Facilitating Pathways: Care, Treatment and Prevention in Child and Adolescent Mental Health" is quite inclusive and the contri butions to the Congress, as reflected in the abstracts, cover the whole range of child and adolescent mental health endeavour, including all modern methods and trends in research and clinical application. The ways we understand and treat our patients are changing rapidly, and this too is reflected in the contributions to this volume, which give state-of-the-art information that should allow us to provide better care, treatment and prevention to children, adolescents and their care-givers everywhere in the world."

Seit dem Erscheinen des 1. Bandes (Behandlungsleitlinie Schizophrenie) der Praxisleitlinien in Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie 1998 hat sich die Diskussion uber die Notwendigkeit und Qualitat von Leitlinien intensiviert. Leitlinien orientieren sich am Referenzbereich diagnosti- scher und therapeutischer Evidenz; sie sollen den Arzt nicht binden, drucken aber doch eine gewisse Verbind- lichkeit aus. Sie muss en dem jeweiligen Stand des Wis- sens angepaBt werden und sollten sich - in Anlehnung an 70 SGB V -auf das Ausreichende und ZweckmaBige beschranken, das Notwendige nicht uberschreiten und den Kosten/Nutzen-Aspekt nicht auGer Acht lassen. Es gehort zu den genuinen Aufgaben der medizi- nisch-wissenschaftlichen Fachgesellschaften, Leitlinien zu entwickeln und ihren Praxis transfer zu gewahrleisten. Urn die Vielzahl - zum Teil von verschiedenen Organisa- tionen - entwickelter Leitlinien in ihrer Qualitat zu si- chern und zu optimieren, hat die Arztliche Zentralstelle Qualitatssicherung (AZQ) eine Clearing stelle eingerich- tet. Die entwickelte Checkliste zur Beurteilung von Leit- Iinien stellt das formale Bewertungsinstrument dar (AZQ 1998). Mit Hilfe dieser Bearbeitungskriterien, die auch von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wissenschaftlich Me- dizinischer Fachgesellschaften (AWMF) anerkannt wer- den, konnen die von den zustandigen Fachgesellschaften entwickelten Leitlinien fur spezielle Krankheitsbilder und Behandlungsformen auch selbst evaluiert werden. Die Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Psychiatrie, Psychothe- rapie und NervenheiIkunde (DGPPN) arbeitet intensiv VI Vorwort an der Entwicklung des konzeptuellen und instrumentel- len Rustzeugs fur die Einfuhrung qualitatssichernder MaBnahmen in Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie.

Around the world, a vast number of children and adolescents suffer from mental and neurological disorders and only a small proportion of them receive adequate care. This is so in both developing and developed countries. The need to raise awareness about this problem and provide specific advice regarding their prevention and treatment was identified as a priority for the World Psychiatric Association by Professor Ahmed Okasha during his Presidency of the Association and resulted in the creation of his Presidential Programme on Child Mental Health. This book presents some of the fruits of this programme and constitutes a global call to action for mental health workers and policy makers.

"The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: An area of global neglect" brings together information on the burden of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence with methods of raising public awareness of these problems. The book also describes therapeutic and preventive interventions that could diminish them. It then presents the results of field studies in Brazil, Egypt and Russia documenting the effectiveness of interventions to prevent school dropout in those three very different countries.

With its emphasis on practical guidance for the development of interventions to prevent or treat child and adolescent mental health, "The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: An area of global neglect" provides much-needed information of direct interest to health professionals and the many others involved in the provision of health care to children and adolescents in both the developing and the developed countries.