[Depressive states at the stage of broad clinical presentations of anorexia nervosa in adolescents].

OBJECTIVE

To specify psychopathological features and dynamics of depression developed at the stage of broad clinical presentations of anorexia nervosa (AN) in adolescent patients.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Authors studied 61 young women, aged from 14 to 18 years, mean age 16.6 ± .9 years. Depressive states manifested during the first year of AN in all patients.

RESULTS

Two variants of depressive episodes were described. The first variant was characterized by asthenic/depressive, somatic and autonomic presentations, with the leading role of exogenous/organic and somatogenic factors. In the second variant, affective disorders were characterized by the anxiety affect concomitant with adynamia, dysphoria and melancholia that most probably may be caused by endogenous constitutional/biological factors. The follow-up data (0,5-6 years) indicated that most of the patients with the second variant of depressive episodes had recurrent depressive states. During the course of disease, eating disorders acquired an atypical character and gradually decreased while the affective pathology became dominating.

CONCLUSION

Depressive symptomatology in AN patients of pubertal age corresponded to main mechanisms of development of the clinical picture and dynamics of adolescent depression as atypical depressive triad, predominance of anxiety and asthenic/adynamic affect, a trend towards protracted course and substantial frequency of dysmorphophobic symptoms and over-valued ideas.