[The range of adolescent medicine]

Adolescent medicine is situated "in between" and "on the borders of" different areas of medical specialisations: psychiatry, gynaecology, preventive medicine, paediatrics and internal medicine (and their respective subspecialties).The specificity of adolescent medicine is the evaluation of clinical situations with a particular consideration of the successive stages of the adolescent bio-psycho social development (puberty, identity construction, modifications of the relations to the peer-groups and the family). A special interest goes also to preventive aspects, especially concerning experimental and risk behaviours. The medical approach to adolescents requires a particular attention to psychosocial aspects when confronted with somatic complaints and inversely a good somatic evaluation in front of adolescents suffering from complexes psychosocial situations.