Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia

Although prepubertal children have been known since the turn of the present century to exhibit symptoms of “schizophrenia” (DeSanctis 1906), it has only been in the past 20 years that careful studies of childhood-onset schizophrenia have been reported. In the present chapter we will describe the acute symptoms of the disorder, review the few studies available which describe the prodromal features of the illness, and discuss what information we may learn from study of the children of schizophrenic mothers in regard to the phenotypic manifestations of schizophrenia in children. We will also review studies which attempt to identify core psychological impairments in schizophrenic children, and which examine certain information processing functions in these children. These studies indicate that schizophrenic children have deficits which parallel those seen in adult-onset schizophrenia. We will conclude with a discussion of treatment, as well as some practical suggestions for future research.