Interface between neurology and psychiatry in childhood

Abstract

In the post war years of the 20th century, the divide between neurology and psychiatry seemed nearly complete. Such a separation between the "organic" biologically based disorders with florid neurological physical signs, and the "functional" mentally ill behaviourally, affectively or psychotically disturbed with minimal physical neurological abnormalities on examination would have seemed extraordinary a couple of centuries earlier. Freud himself was an expert in cerebral palsy and the minutiae of its description. For paediatric neurologists it has been the rare psychiatrist who has been a regular participant in their meetings and whose writings have proved educational and inspirational. Similarly, it is rare for neurologists to be involved in teaching child psychiatrists and few have had training in the psychosocial aspects of patient management. It is to be hoped that in the present century paediatric neurology and child and adolescent psychiatry will come even closer with a new generation of neuropsychiatrists. Training in paediatric neurology and paediatric neurodisability currently reflects this with a requirement for psychiatry modules and placement.