Early Onset Schizophrenia

Question 1

Childhood onset Schizophrenia

Answer 1

Very rare and extremely severe form of schizophrenia

Question 2

Childhood onset characterized by:

Answer 2

by a more chronic course, with severe social and cognitive consequences and increased negative symptoms compared to adult-onset schizophrenia.

Question 3

What deficits do Children with childhood-onset schizophrenia have?

Answer 3

They been shown to have more significant deficits in measures of intelligence quotient (IQ), memory, and tests of perceptuomotor skills compared with adolescent-onset schizophrenia.

Increased impairment in childhood-onset schizophrenia of cognitive measures such as IQ, working memory, and perceptuomotor skills such deficits may be premorbid markers of illness, rather than sequelae, of the disorder

Question 4

Childhood onset vs adult onset Schizophrenia

Answer 4

Although cognitive impairments are greater in younger patients with schizophrenia, clinical presentation of schizophrenia remains remarkably similar across the ages, and the diagnosis ofchildhood-onset schizophrenia is continuous with that in adolescents and adults,

Question 5

Premorbid features of early onset schizophrenia vs adult onset

Answer 5

Premorbid history of social rejection, poor peer relationships, clingy withdrawn behaviour, and academic trouble compared to adult onset.

Question 6

What voices occurs in children with schizophrenia?

Answer 6

Auditory hallucinations commonly occur in children with schizophrenia. The voices may reflect an ongoing critical commentary, or command hallucinations may instruct children to harm or kill themselves or others. Hallucinatory voices may sound human or animal, or “bizarre,”

Question 7

Common features among youth with schizophrenia

Answer 7

Formal thought disorders, including loosening of associations and thought blocking

Question 8

Significant challenges in making a diagnosis of childhood-onset schizophrenia

Answer 8

very young children who report hallucinations, apparent thought disorders, language delays, and poor ability to differentiate reality from fantasy may be manifesting phenomena better accounted for by other disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, or sometimes developmental immaturity, none of which evolve into a major psychotic illness

Question 9

Differential diagnosis of childhood-onset schizophrenia

Answer 9

Includes autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorders, depressive psychotic disorders, multicomplex developmental syndromes, drug-induced psychosis, and psychosis caused by organic disease states. Children with childhood-onset schizophrenia have been shown to have frequent comorbidities, including ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and major depression

Question 10

Age of onset for diagnosis for early-onset schizophrenia?

Answer 10

Onset of psychotic symptoms before the age of 18 years