Approaching the adolescent patient. Pitfalls and solutions.

Over the last three decades, there has been increasing interest in adolescent health care. However, although appreciation of adolescent development and pathology has grown, a crucial topic has been neglected--the influence of the physician's underlying attitudes on his or her treatment of adolescent patients. This review discusses four potential pitfalls in the physician's approach to the adolescent patient: cultural stereotypes, generalization of expertise, countertransference, and professional narcissism. Case presentations illustrate the problems inherent in these areas. Finally, practical solutions to these problems are presented through a systematic approach to an adolescent's office visit, including the use of interviewing techniques, questionnaires, and figure drawings.