EDITORIAL Advances and perspectives in child and adolescent psychiatry

Child and adolescent psychiatry is a relatively new but extremely promising medical discipline. Significant advances have been accomplished in the understanding and treatment of mental disorders in childhood over the last decades, and many new discoveries are expected in the forthcoming years. Unfortunately, progress has not occurred homogeneously across regions in the world and within countries. In Brazil, a small number of academic centers have led the work, and there is an urgent need of more investigators. In addition, a huge proportion of children and adolescents suffering from mental, emo-tional, and behavioral disorders across the country remain undiagnosed and untreated. This special issue of Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria presents six articles focusing on relevant mental disorders that affect childre