[Manic-depressive psychosis in childhood].

In this paper, manic-depressive psychosis in childhood, in whom the age of onset was under 15 years old, is discussed. Firstly, I surveyed the history of studies in manic-depressive psychosis in childhood and dealt with the recent concept. Secondly, I reported the clinical features, such as classification, age of onset, sex, genetic factors, clinical symptoms, therapy and prognosis. Clinical study of 27 children who were diagnosed as mood disorders (manic-depressive psychosis) according to DSM-III-R is mainly cited. Finally, I emphasized the importance of physical symptoms and discussed the lower limit of age of onset. The problem of clinical entity, referring to schizophrenia and neurotic depression (dysthymia) in childhood, is discussed.