[Autistic hebephrenia: concepts and findings].

The concept of hebephrenia according to Kleist and Leonhard describes distinct clinical entities with a chronically progressive course leading to residual syndroms with a clear cut symptom constellation which is stable over time. The main symptom is a specific kind of pathological affectivity resulting in a lack of profound future- orientated tension. In six case-reports we illustrate the characteristical clinical picture of the autistic hebephrenia, one of the four subforms of hebephrenic psychoses according to Leonhard. The characteristical clinical syndrom consists of an affective blunting, autistic withdrawal, unfathomable facial expression, unhappy mood and periods of moodiness with aggressive excitement. The concept of hebephrenia according to Kleist and Leonhard presents a promising heuristic attempt for biological-etiological research. In ICD-10 and DSM-IV the usual concept of hebephrenia is a rather vaguely defined nosological category with a polymorphous non-specific symptomatology.