[Minimal brain dysfunction in adolescents (clinical study)]

Description of the adolescent minimal brain dysfunction (M.B.D.) syndrome (DSM III, Attention deficit disorder, residual type), not easily recognised during adolescence, because the symptomatology of the child hyperkinetic syndrome becomes chiefly social and manifests itself within relationships. But the attention disorders remain. The whole stresses the psychological features of the adolescent: lowering of self-esteem, powerless feelings, paranoid defences, identity, autonomy and authority problems, higher frequency of delinquent behaviour. Biochemical aspects are briefly discussed. The author describes a psychopathological explaining model which allows the understanding of the behavioural symptoms and shows that a same structure underlies the child hyperkinetic syndrome and the M.B.D. syndrome of the adolescent. The M.B.D. is not to be considered as a disease but rather as a psychic handicap in the domains of the intellect, action and affect, which psychosocial expression is determined by the importance of the disorder, the environment, the intelligence quotient, the tolerance of the relative and peers, and the personal history. Three cases are reported.