Day treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry

Objectives: The history of day treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry in Germany is brief. Accordingly, day treatment programs deal primarily with programming, outcome studies and indications/contraindications. Methods: This article reviews the English- and German-language literature between 1960 and 2000 relevant to the outcome of day treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry. Outcome studies are discussed. Results: Outcome studies do not yet allow decisions about for whom day treatment does or does not exactly work. Nonetheless, evidence from the literature suggests that day treatment does work for many different disorders in child and adolescent psychiatry. The predictive value of parental involvement in therapy for outcome is supported by several studies. Conclusions: In addition to randomized controlled outcome studies, effectiveness studies of single day treatment programs are useful and should deliver the data on the kinds of children, treatment goals and results for which a program in a specific regional mental health care system is effective.