The results of a longitudinal study of adolescent patients and controls, designed to test the clinical reality of the theory of "adolescent turmoil", have been previously reported. In this presentation the author reevaluates the theory and concludes that the clinical psychiatric effects of adolescent turmoil should be given much less significance than previously thought. The tendency to attribute symptomatology among adolescents to temporary, developmental "turmoil" rather than to psychiatric illness may dangerously delay the therapeutic intervention required to prevent the development of greater psychopathology.Abstract Teaser