Infant psychiatry--its scope, coherence and clinical utility

Infant psychiatry claims to be a separate discipline within psychiatry. This article sets out to test that claim. Goals were to establish whether the field had meaningful boundaries; whether its practice related to a coherent body of research; and whether its assessments and syndromes had clinical utility.

A descriptive, conceptually based review of the literature was undertaken. Established opinion was taken from authoritative textbooks and reviews, and compared with other articles from both keyword and citation-based literature searches.

Infant psychiatry is defined by three components. It focuses on children young enough to be socially absorbed primarily in the relationship with their main caretaker. It privileges these relationships, attempting to predicate psychopathology and treatment upon them. It then applies this basis to specific syndromes, their assessment and treatment. This approach has been conceptually and practically effective. Limitations include inadequate distinctions between the normal range of individual differences and psychopathology, and poor integration of constitutional hypotheses about infant difficulties.

Infant psychiatry can support its claim to be a separate discipline, with an approach that is both distinctive and useful. Further advances in the field would benefit from collaborative research that would expand its interactionist perspective, and link differences to psychopathology.