[Consultations for adolescents: which setting?]

Consultations with adolescents have their specificities, there is a triangular situation between the adolescent patient, his parents and the physician. The setting of the consultation has to take into consideration the developmental stages of adolescence for to give an appropriate response to the expectations and needs of the patient and his parents. Questions about confidentiality are fundamental and has to be openly discussed. The condition for medical confidentiality for an adolescent is his capacity for exercising autonomous choices; on the other hand the parents have the right to be informed about the health of their child. We are confronted with an ethical and legal dilemma. The physician can take the role of a mediator: he has to support the autonomy of the adolescent with regard to the parental role.