As popular eating disorders seen during childhood, I give outlines of pica, feeding disorders of infancy and early childhood, anorexia nervosa etc. Subsequently I report psychosomatic characteristics of anorexia nervosa (including a borderline group) of 42 cases under 15 years of age whom I treated at the Pediatric Department of Sapporo Medical College Hospital. As to the outline of the implantation, an outcome of the diet limiting group was good, and there were many dropouts and cases needing to refer to the psychiatric department in the purging group. As for the cases who had an intense fear of obesity, various acting out developed with an increase of weight in inpatient care particularly among the purging group, and there was a limit for inpatient care at the pediatric department. Cooperation with the psychiatric department in the early stage of treatment is indispensable in those cases. Among problems of eating disorders in childhood are a physical decline or a fall of recovery ability of the alimentary system function, the onset of an alimentary system disorder, a halt of growth of body height, long term menolipsis, osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, cytopenia, electrolyte abnormality etc by being continually thin, and mental devotion to food, increased feelings of anxiety or irritation, death consideration, unsuccessful suicide, underachievement, poor concentration etc. Prophylactic consideration for these is indispensable. With regard to the treatment of childhood eating disorders, it is essential to see both sides of mind and body of child and family comprehensively, and it is important to promote cooperation with schools.

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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common cause of chronic abdominal pain in children and adolescents. However, we are not necessarily satisfied with the clinical investigation on childhood IBS comparing with adult IBS. In this article, the author will try to reconsider the problem from a developmental and differential viewpoint. (1) Symptomatology of IBS in children and adolescents has a considerable variety at each age group, and younger children have the different term of functional gastrointestinal disorders. (2) A treatment should be base on the physiology of defecation, and on comprehension about "gastrocolonic reflex" that plays a very important role in normal defecation. (3) The evaluation of developmental problems has become a very important factor in a therapeutic approach to children and adolescents with IBS. (4) The Rome III child and adolescent criteria did not represent all of the clinical facts of pediatricians in Japan. We should speed up working to complete the algorithm of childhood IBS.

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The fastest-growing developmental disorder is formed interactively by personal factors and environmental factors. A problem of the people with the developmental disorder is not that there is a developmental disease, but that the person with the developmental disease is troubled with life. It is very changeable. In our department, we gave a concrete example and examined it. From the viewpoint which combines scientific evidence and support for the patient, we should examine this problem without developing on the settlement by a medical model. We would like to reevaluate the developmental disease from the viewpoint of psychopathological development. There is highly significant from the perspective of psychosomatic medicine.

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Two cases of the psychosomatic disease of adolescence were reported, who were a 12 year old girl of spastic cerebral palsy and a 14 year old of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. We also showed the medical issues of childhood neuroses, including the incidence, etiology and treatment, which were dealt with at the Hokkaido Asahikawa Habilitation Centre for Disabled Children. Psychosomatic diseases and childhood neuroses were seen in 12.3% and 34.2%, respectively among 73 patients in our habilitation centre, and the occurrence rate seemed to be high. Etiology of childhood neuroses was considered to be a combination of communication disability and background problems such as family environment and parent-child relationship. Many patients had various psychological problems and the presenting symptoms were varied and tended to repeat themselves. It was suggested that the threshold of childhood neuroses (including psychosomatic disease) was very low in the handicapped children. Multi-disciplinary intervention based on common understanding was effective for treatment of childhood neuroses.

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Objectives: Recently, the psychotherapies based on mindfulness with the meditation are drawing attentions. The aim of this study is to establish the group training program with Zen meditation, and to experimentally investigate the effect of this program on the mental health of non-clinical samples. Also we have investigated the cognitive factors which are assumed as the active ingredient of the mindfulness training. Subjects: Twenty non clinical samples who had agreed to the informed consent are selected as participants. Method: During the 4-week period, participants were instructed to practice the everyday training at home in addition to the group sessions which were held once a week. Participants received the instruction for the meditation training recorded in CD in order to practice whenever they wish. Results: As the result, it is indicated that the program was effective on mental health as follows; 1) the reduction of depressive tendency, 2) the reduction of thought suppression in the cognitive aspect, 3) the improvement on ability of moderation of catastrophic thinking, 4) the recovering the balance of rational thinking and emotional thinking. Conclusion: It was suggested that the stress reduction program based on Zen meditation was effective on the mental health of non-clinical participants. The possibilities and limitations of this study are discussed.

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Backgrounds and Objectives: In Kyusyu, Japan, there is a 112-year old Japanese male, the world oldest man who is receiving no special care. In order to investigate psycho-somatic medical features of this rare case, we did research on him. Subject and Method: Here we approached him by medical examinations, present nutritional and psychological/ psychiatric analyses. Results and Conclusions: Almost every day, he drinks milk, eats balanced foods, writes a diary, and walks moderately in the house, which might have led him to both physically and mentally healthy conditions.

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