On so-called atypical psychosis in early and mid-adolescence

Twenty-three cases of adolescent atypical psychosis were reported, of which 12 were followed for more than three years (at the longest about 18 years). Our cases indicated apparent atypicalness in regard to the symptomatology and to the course, quite different from cyclothymic psychosis and schizophrenia. In an etiological point of view, hereditary predispositions were more frequently recognized in our cases than in schizophrenic cases, but because schizophrenics were found in the families of these patients, it was difficult for us to determine whether our cases belonged to an etiologically independent endogenous psychosis. However, we received the impression that atypical psychosis could be differentiated from others even in adolescents. But this psychosis was seldom found in childhood. While, through the comparison of these patients with adult cases and by considering previous research, we were led to the assumption that adolescent atypical psychosis might be understood as a minor pattern of the fully-developed psychosis in adults but was provided with many properties specific to adolescense.