Abstract

The importance of childhood trauma on development processes are described in numerous studies. Traumatic childhood experiences have a profound impact on many different areas of child/adolescent functioning - on an emotional, behavioral, physical, cognitive, and thought level.


Clinical entities associated with the traumatic experience in children and adolescents are common in psychiatric practice. Frequent manifestations of these experiences are described as PTSD, but also as depression, as anxiety, or somatization, as behavior disorders or dissociative reactions. In clinical work with children and adolescents, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of understanding traumatic experiences through the dimensions of developmental processes.


This article illustrates the complexity of the clinical presentation of adolescents with a traumatic experience during childhood.