Prevalence and treatment of psychiatric disorders in 3 to 14-year-old children: results of a representative field study in the small town rural region of Traunstein, upper Bavaria.

In a representative sample (n = 358) 18.4% of the children aged 3 to 14 were classified as having psychiatric disorders, mostly special symptoms (13.4%) (ICD 307). Using the multiaxial classification of child psychiatric disorders developed by Rutter et al. (1), connections between a psychiatric diagnosis on the one hand and developmental delays, medical conditions and abnormal psychosocial circumstances on the other are pointed out. Finally, the situation regarding help for children with psychiatric disorders is discussed. Only 2.0% of the children were receiving treatment for such conditions.