[Pharmacotherapy of masked depression].

An increase in the developments of somatised illness and the mixture of nosological forms together with a growing tendency towards chronicity are evident in a looming change in the style of depressive psychoses. Vegetative vital emotions remain the leading symptoms of larvate depression. A lasting effect cannot be achieved by means of conventional somatic or sedative treatment. An adequate thymoleptic medication suitable for the main symptoms, incorporating socio- and psychotherapeutic methods for the contributary neurotic determinants, can however achieve an involution of the somatic and emotional symptoms of the vital irritation. For recurrent and increasingly chronic developments a long-term treatment with lithium salts proves successful.