The process of establishing child and adolescent psychiatry as a mainstream medical subspecialty in our country began forty years ago. The studies began in Istanbul University between 1956±1957. The ®rst child psychiatric clinic was founded in Hacettepe University in 1959 andwas soon after followed by the others (Cebiroglu andOE zbek 1990). Child Psychiatry has special importance among the other medical specialities. We are in an era in which the value of children is grasped and the importance of their protection is comprehended. The concept of understanding children is the basis and the future of such a society. Children's rights and their physical and mental care determines the policy of the countries, and these parameters are used as a criterion for evaluating the degree of development of a society. Nearly half of our population consists of children and adolescents; therefore, Turkey cannot be excluded from these changes. Although not very rapid, some changes have started in our society that have been accompanied by the recent developments in the ®eld of child psychiatry. The methods, the choice of medication, and the diculties met by the sta€ working in this ®eld are also given importance in order to understand the similarities and the di€erences in their therapeutic approaches. Taking this as our goal, this study was carried out by contacting all the centres in our country.