Infant mental health and biological risk.
Parents seldom seek help directly for infant mental health problems. Parents enter the health care system seeking advice for identified or presumed biological problems in their infants. Many of these biological problems, however, have major psychosocial components of importance to infant mental health. It is important that physicians deal directly with the psychosocial issues and avoid converting them into biological medical problems unintentionally. Three common types of problems and appropriate methods of management are discussed to ensure special recognition and effective handling by the physician of psychosocial problems and the promotion of mental health. The problems discussed are the following: Infants seen with defined medical conditions that generally have associated psychosocial problems including child abuse. Infants seen who have fully recovered from critical illnesses but are considered "at risk" for later developmental disability. Infants seen with normal variations of behavior that are misinterpreted by their parents or physicians as due to a medical problem. In infancy medical and psychosocial issues are so closely interwoven that it is critical that physicians learn to recognize the major psychosocial consequences of primary medical problems and the medical manifestations of primary psychosocial problems and their management.