Disturbi d'ansia e psicopatologia adolescenziale acuta

In adolescence the prevalence rate for anxiety disorders is about 15%. Even if they are one of the most prevalent categories of adolescent psychopathology the anxiety diagnosis according to categorical parameters is difficult and the meaning of life events as predictors of anxiety symptoms is discussed. The sample consisted of adolescents, aged 13 to 17 years, assessed for anxiety disorders over a period of hospitalization for acute break-down in an in-patient unit for adolescents. The risk factors and the life events are analized in quantitative and qualitative terms according a psychodynamic and psychiatric point of view, so to give a more complete sense to the symptoms and the psychopathological factors that have produced anxiety disorders in adolescent age. The authors stressed the importance of a psychodynamic focal psychotherapy as regards the crisis to get through the limits and the problems connected to the assessment of anxiety disorders in adolescence and carry out a treatment with curative and preventive aims.