[Adolescent medicine: conduct in the context of familial, social and/or scholastic breakdown(s)]

Adolescent medicine is not a specialty but constitutes a specific clinical practice. The majority of teenagers go through adolescence without necessarily requiring systematic medical monitoring For others, it is a period that reveals past and/or present events that can combine with one another and be a source of morbidity: post-traumatic symptoms, familial dysfunction, behavioral problems unmasking a psychiatric disorder, onset of chronic disease... Medical follow-up of adolescents brings to light unique clinical profiles reflecting the existence of familial, social and/or scholastic rupture(s). Herein, through the introduction of the concept of rupture, we describe the principals of pragmatic medical management. This approach emphasizes that, first and foremost, the teenager must be reassured as to the proper functioning of his/her body, so that, in parallel or secondarily, psychotherapy can be envisaged. This strategy, while providing a guide for an individual physician, demonstrates that, in certain cases, he/she can work in tandem with a multidisciplinary hospital unit, in which all care functions can be mobilized around the youth.