[Endogenous depression in children]

The phenomenology of 96 depressive paroxysms in 56 preschool and early school age children suffering from paroxysmal schizophrenia and cyclothymia was studied. It was concluded that the major characteristics of child depressions included their "masked" character with the prevalence of ideational disturbances and the predominance of anxiety and fear, a tendency toward excessive fearfulness, rarity and naivity of self-condemnation ideas, a pronounced nature of the dysphoric mood tone, a tendency toward paroxysmal episodes of fear, dysphoria, restlessness, somatoalgetic crises, changeable nature of depressive symptomatology, its liability to environmental influence, a peculiar diurnal rhythm of affect, and a reactive nature of the development of depressive disturbances. Six clinical variants of endogenous depression in children were identified.