Psychiatry in Germany 2012.

Healthcare in Germany is characterized by a dichotomy of a private and a public healthcare sector, which also pertains to mental healthcare. While the prevalence figures of mental disorders in Germany remained fairly constant over the last 15 years, utilization rates of healthcare services due to mental disorders increased by 70-80% including inpatient and outpatient services, sick leave cases and cases of early retirement due to mental disorders. Several challenges are currently evident for mental healthcare in Germany, ranging from interesting a sufficient number of medical students for this field of medicine, dealing with the yet unforeseeable consequences of a novel mental hospital remuneration system, better integration of services and remuneration providers, to elucidating the causes of the increasing utilization rates. Mental healthcare research will take centre stage in addressing these challenges.