[Psychic disturbances in adopted children--an overview of the postiion of clinical research].

Empirical studies on the psychopathology of adoptees are summarized and discussed with regard to the possibility of a relationship between adoption and psychic disturbances. The results leave the question open as to whether adoptees are more prone to psychic disturbances than other individuals. Those under treatment do not seem to be more severely disturbed than others. Whereas however the adoptees display more disturbances in their social behavior rather than neurotic disturbances, the relationsship is reversed in the population of the non-dopted. The causes seem to lie in the conditions in early childhood and in the experience of being adopted itself.