Child and adolescent psychiatry staff's knowledge on pain management.

Objective: To assess the level of child and adolescent psychiatric staff's knowledge regarding pain management, to determine group differences between the medically more educated (physicians, nurses) and the less educated (psychologists, educators, special therapists) and to investigate the influence of gender, age, or professional experience as well as staff's own pain experiences.

Methods: A total of 193 staff members from different professional backgrounds from three independent child and adolescent psychiatry clinics in Northern Germany were tested using the German version of the Pediatric Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain Shriner's revision (PNKAS-Sr).

Results: In total, the staff scored correctly 66% of the inventory questions.

[Inpatient Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) - 10 years of experience on the psychiatric inpatient unit "wellenreiter"].

In April 2004 the inpatient unit "Wellenreiter" at the Vorwerker Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy in Lubeck (Germany) opened its doors. Despite reservations by the therapeutic community, we implemented a specialized treatment for female adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality disorder - the I;>ialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A). In this article we present the concept, our experiences, and data from the past 10 years of clinical work in this specialized unit.