ABSTRACT
The affective disorders and emotional symptoms described above are often referred to in the scientific as disorders of internalisation, because the symptoms are directed more inwardly and less outwardly than in externalisation disorders, or disorders with behavioural difficulties. Although emotional symptoms in mentally ill adolescents, such as depressed mood, anxiety, dysphoria, shyness, or a tendency towards somatisation, can often be traced back to the preschool period, such symptoms at this age are often not taken seriously enough by parents and specialists. Retrospective reports from those affected indicate that emotional symptoms were often experienced in childhood, sometimes as early as preschool or primary school age. Operationalised psychodynamic diagnosis is an indispensable diagnostic instrument in this context. In both paediatric medicine and psychiatry, there is currently a lack of systematic knowledge about the early manifestations of affective disorders. Depressive and anxiety disorders are well-characterised conditions with the status of a disease.
