The development of child psychiatry in 19th century Britain

Child psychiatry was established as a separate discipline in the 1930s. The paper analyses and describes the early development of child psychiatry in Britain, with particular reference to the contributions of the medical profession. Major influences came from general psychiatry. Children were at first treated in adult asylums; the first concepts of childhood insanity were formed around 1800, with moral insanity becoming the most common diagnosis. From 1850 onwards other major contributions came from paediatrics and the care of the mentally retarded. These developments were part of wider socio-economic changes in childhood.