[Processes of attention to children and adolescents under 20 years in La Castañeda: evolution of the concept of childhood in psychiatry].

Today, there is evidence that shows that children and adolescents can experience developmental problems and psychiatric disorders. This was possible because of two main reasons, the evolution of the concept of infancy and the progress made in medical and psychiatric diagnostic classification. This manuscript offers a glance to early psychiatric attention in Mexico, particularly the care processes provided to 36 children and adolescents under twenty, admitted in the mental asylum La Castañeda, during the first half of the XX century. Admission causes, length of stay, diagnosis, treatment and discharge motives, are some of the aspects described in this study. Finally, it also reflects about the challenge it is for a child psychiatric hospital nowadays, with such a history, to become an innovative institution able to claim a place in the medical field in favor of those minors that can barely defend themselves.