Schizophrenia In Childhood: Unusual But Troubling
Children develop differently than their peers
, which may make it difficult to diagnose mental illness early. Normal behaviors at age four may be eccentric by age seven. Young children often have imaginary friends and strange experiences hearing voices, but once they grow older, these same playful interactions may be viewed as symptoms of schizophrenia in children. Even though the prognosis is worse for children than adult-onset patients, research is promising for the new generation of anti-psychotic medications.The signs of schizophrenia are rarely observed in youngsters, however, statistics show that 1 in 40,000 kids are identified as having this problem. In comparison, 1 in 100 grownups aged 18-35 are identified as having some variety of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia in youngsters has certain comparable traits to developmental disabilities such as autism. However, only schizophrenia demonstrates the hallucinations and delusions that typify the disorder. Many children also exhibit muted emotions, dislike of social situations, inattentiveness to their hygiene and heightened sensitivity.
If a child is seeing or hearing things that don't exist, then he or she may be exhibiting early symptoms of schizophrenia. Children may exhibit gradual changes, such as becoming shyer or withdrawn or they may have an acute onset marked by fearful delusions that people can read their minds or are plotting against them. Affected children will often laugh at sad events, show little body language and have muted facial expressions. Other symptoms of mental illness include speech impairment, poor memory, difficulty paying attention and hallucinations.
All too often, children are misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Delusions and hallucinations are symptoms that distinguish it from something like autism. These will not be isolated circumstances, but will continue for at least six months. Usually a child begins to reveal symptoms at age 7, whereas an autistic child is more usually diagnosed by age 3. Oftentimes the agitated fits of acute schizophrenia are mistaken as a personality, bipolar or dissociative disorder. Most youngsters with this mental disease demonstrate no real interest in friendship.
Currently, the outlook is not very bright for children showing symptoms of schizophrenia. Many of the antipsychotic medications on the market do not have documentation of clinical trials tested on children. Studies show that anywhere from 15 - 45% of young patients show little to no response to traditional medications, like haloperidol, loxapine, thioridazine or thiothixene. A new generation of antipsychotic drugs, like clozapine, risperidone and olanzapine show some promise, but more studies need to be conducted to determine long-term risks of taking such drugs. Short-term side effects include weight gain and sedation, but the risk of decreased white blood cell count, seizures and heart disease are yet to be measured with certainty.
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