Idiopathic Precocious Puberty in Girls: Psychiatric Follow-up in Adolescence

Precocious puberty leads to conspicuous discrepancy between physique and chronological age associated with an array of psychosocial sequelae. Clinical case reports have suggested considerable psychopathology in some children with this condition which may continue into teenage and young adulthood. We present data from a first systematic controlled follow-up study of 16 adolescent girls with a history of idiopathic precocious puberty compared to closely pair-matched adolescent control subjects of comparable pubertal status and normal pubertal history. The results show little difference in body image, self-regard, and definite psychiatric diagnoses but slightly increased psychopathologic symptomatology, especially in the areas of conduct problems, and psychosomatic complaints usually associated with menstruation. We conclude that idiopathic precocious puberty in girls is associated with a long-term risk of minor psychopathologic symptomatology.