[Psychosomatic aspects of encopresis]

37 children (aged 4 1/2-15 1/2 years) with encopresis were seen at the psychosomatic outpatient unit of the university children's hospital of Graz in the course of two years, comprising 1.8% of all our outpatients of that time (n = 2037). They had been referred to us by pediatricians general practitioners, welfare institutions and the local children's surgical hospital. Based an our observations and data-analysis of this heterogenic group we would like to suggest a subdivision of the new classification group of "elimination disorders" (307.70/307.60 DSM III-R) into three main subgroups; according to the use of the fifth digit in the DSM III-R (e.g. mood disorders 296.xx) we define: 307.71: primary infantile encopresis (group I); 307.72: primary reactive encopresis (group II a); 307.73: secondary reactive encopresis (group II b); 307.74: late "neurotic" encopresis (group III); 307.70: not otherwise specified NOS. Moreover, we hope to draw attention to the specific psychodynamics of this functional disorder, since we believe this to be a fundamental prerequisite for any successful therapeutic intervention.