[Features of the clinical picture and dynamics of endogenous depression developing in adolescence (clinico-catamnestic study)].

The clinical picture and time-course of endogenic depressions were studied in 31 subjects who fell ill in adolescence, at the age of 10-17 years. The follow-up continued for 22 years. At the initial stages the overwhelming majority of the adolescents (93.55%) showed "masked" atypical manifestations of depression. The follow-up findings made it possible to identify a certain pattern in the time-course and transformation of affective disturbances. With time the affective disorders became clear-cut in half of the patients and no further complications of the syndrome structure were observed. In other cases the affective symptomatology was attended by hallucinational and hallucination-delirious disturbances. In the remaining cases a short stage of affective disturbances was followed by a negative symptomatology or the disease assumed a continuous course with the appearance of chronic productive disorders. The premorbid characteristics of adolescents and the structural specificities of the first depressive attack can serve as early prognostic criteria.