Childhood schizophrenia: symptoms, causes and treatment

Schizophrenia is a disabling, chronic and highly complex disorder. On rare occasions, this disorder appears during childhood.

childhood schizophrenia, although it is part of the spectrum of schizophrenia, it receives a specific name because the children who suffer from it manifest a picture very homogeneous with an unfavorable prognosis that must be diagnosed as soon as possible to stop the clinical worsening of the patient.

These children, who, like adults, suffer hallucinations and delusions, also show brain abnormalities and genetic risk factors that explain the early development of the disease.

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Childhood Schizophrenia Clinic

Most cases of childhood schizophrenia are diagnosed through the presence of hallucinations, a very striking symptom.

However, It is not the only symptom that these boys and girls exhibit. In the same way that occurs with schizophrenia in adulthood, the psychotic picture of schizophrenics is very diverse and includes different symptoms, both psychotic and disorganizational.

1. psychotic symptoms

The main cause of alert for parents is the presence of hallucinations. The most common are auditory hallucinations such as unpleasant and negative voices speaking to the patient or they call you Voices can be male or female, familiar or unfamiliar, critical or flattering. Sounds, noises or music are considered less frequent and severe.

It is also possible to find visual hallucinations, seeing shapes, colors or people that are not present and that may even have religious characteristics, for example, seeing the devil or Christ.

Another psychotic manifestation is the presence of delusions. A delusion is an unfounded and rigid belief that the patient clings to like a burning nail, whose content is implausible or very difficult to believe. For example, delusions of persecution where the patient believes he is the victim of a conspiracy, that someone is spying on him, etc.

Children are highly imaginative individuals, so it is very easy to confuse delusions with fantasies that can be more or less extravagant according to the creativity of the little one. Likewise, ideas like “my parents can read my mind” may well be delusions, or the product of an innocent and gullible mind. The good judgment of the clinician is essential at this point.

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2. symptoms of disorganization

In childhood schizophrenia we find bizarre behaviors, such as unusual food preferences, strange social behavior, strange or illogical speech. Again, it is necessary to separate the incoherence of children's speech from the illogicality that does not correspond to the evolutionary level of the child.

Of all the disorganizing manifestations in childhood schizophrenia, the most common are motor and social. Prior to diagnosis, it is common for parents to discuss gestures, grimaces or strange postures that anticipate the development of the disorder. Also, these children are socially awkward. They may find it difficult to hold a conversation with other children, express ideas, talk about extravagant topics and lose the thread of dialogue. In general they are described as "weird" by the rest of their peers.

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Causes of childhood schizophrenia

Although the direct cause of the development of childhood schizophrenia is unknown, we do know of a number of risk factors that are associated with the disorder.

Having first-degree relatives with schizophrenia the probability of having this disorder increases, so there is a genetic load in its development. The presence of other comorbid disorders, such as anxiety disorders, ADHD or conduct disorder often accompanies childhood schizophrenia. It is also found that in the families of children with this disorder, emotions are expressed with greater intensity.

There are several studies that describe how the complications during childbirth can lead to abnormalities in neurological development and later to schizophrenia. Above all, those complications that involve cutting off the flow of oxygen to the brain and cause hypoxia with the subsequent development of the disorder, although the exact mechanism is not at all clear.

In these children, the lateral ventricles of the brain. In addition, they progressively lose gray matter in the frontal and temporal regions of the brain, much like adults do. Thus, patients with childhood schizophrenia have smaller brain volume than the normal population.

prognosis and treatment

The age at which schizophrenia debuts is a very powerful predictor of its severity and prognosis. Those people who develop schizophrenia sooner will have a greater affectation and therefore a worse prognosis. They are expected to be more impaired at the level of thought, language, motor skills and social behavior than those who have debuted later.

For this reason, childhood schizophrenia predicts a poor prognosis for those who suffer from it unless it is diagnosed in time. This makes the evaluation of possible schizophrenia during childhood a career. time trial where the professional must be exhaustive, but not go too fast and mark a child forever.

Once it is determined that the child does indeed have childhood-onset schizophrenia, drug therapy with antipsychotics will be started immediately to mitigate as much as possible the deterioration caused by the disorder. Parents will also need to be educated on what kinds of symptoms to expect, how to manage them, and what special needs the child might have later on.

In parallel, delusions and hallucinations are addressed psychologically, teaching the child to recognize them as such. Often, psychotic symptoms are preceded by negative mood states, and it is possible to tell when you are in a vulnerable period. Furthermore, it is imperative teach these patients to make alternative interpretations of events to get out of the rigidity that characterizes delusions.

Finally, it is possible to address the social behavior of the child with schizophrenia through training in social skills to teach him to relate in a normal way with others and to be able to establish meaningful bonds with his classmates class.

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