OBJECTIVE

To clarify the clinical features of depressive states in adolescent boys and girls (taking into account age and sex) seeking help from primary care specialists in outpatient psychiatric care.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 158 patients (89 boys and 69 girls), aged 15—17, with depressive pathology of various genesis, observed in the adolescent office of one of the Moscow psychoneurological dispensary in 2015—2020. The main research methods were clinical-psychopathological, clinical-follow-up, statistical.

RESULTS

An analysis of the data demonstrated that adolescent depression can be observed within different diagnostic categories. Most often they were noted in patients with affective disorders (43%, n=68), emerging personality disorders (29%, n=46), schizotypal disorder (13%, n=21). The nosological affiliation of depression and its severity were associated with sex. In young men, depressive states were more often detected in the structure of emerging personality disorder (59.6%) and schizotypal disorder (15.7%), depressive states within affective disorders were detected in 22.5% of cases. In girls, most of the depressive episodes (69.6%) developed in the structure of affective disorders, less often in personality disorders (20.3%), and schizotypal disorder (10.1%). Depressive episodes in girls were predominantly of moderate severity, in boys the most common were mild depressions.

CONCLUSION

Adolescent depressions are a nosologically heterogeneous group of affective disorders, differing in clinical phenomenology and prognosis. They are noted within the pathology of the affective spectrum, affective phases and psychogenic reactions acting in the dynamics of emerging personality disorders, within the framework of psychopathological diathesis, schizotypal disorder. The influence of sex on the development of depressive disorders is determined by the nosological framework of the condition.