title: [Typus Melancholicus as endophenotype of melancholic depression].
abstract: The concept of Typus Melancholicus has been proposed by German psychiatrist Hubertus Tellenbach (1914-1994) in 1960 to describe the pre-morbid personality of endogenous or melancholic depression. Thisentity shows distinctive personalitytraits: the order attachment, strong moral conscience, intolerance ambiguity and hypernomia-heteronomy. Tellenbach uses atypological and phenomenological approach allows the descriptionof styles, ways of being and becoming ill, with a vulnerability to specific situations (moving, pregnancy, career change). Melancholy would settle after the meeting between the Typus Melancholicus with a particular vulnerable situation. This clearly calls into question the classical idea that sees Kraepelinienne endogenous depression as a diseasede termined by heredity and lack of stressors. We propose to describe Tellenbach's concept, and to summarize the more recent empirical researches that valid the Typus Melancholicus as a phenotype for Melancholia.
authors.affiliation: Clínica St Jean, Universidad Católica de Lovaina, Bélgica. chwidakowich@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Widakowich
mesh_terms: D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D058068:Endophenotypes; D006801:Humans