Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that is expressed in abnormal mental functions, a loss of one's sense of identity and self, a compromised perception of reality, and disturbed behavior. The signs and symptoms of<unk>  are similar to those of adult-onset schizophrenia. Some of the earliest signs that a young child may develop schizophrenia are lags in language and motor development. Some children engage in activities such as flapping the arms or rocking, and may appear anxious, confused, or disruptive on a regular basis. Children may experience hallucinations, but these are often difficult to differentiate from just normal imagination or child play. Visual hallucinations are more commonly found in children than in adults. It is often difficult for children to describe their hallucinations or delusions, making very early-onset schizophrenia especially difficult to diagnose in the earliest stages. The cognitive abilities of children with schizophrenia may also often be lacking, with 20% of patients showing borderline or full intellectual disability. Negative symptoms include apathy, avolition, alogia, anhedonia, asociality, and blunted emotional affect. * Apathy is an overall lack of interest or enjoyment, which relates to the negative symptom of blunted emotional affect. * Blunted emotional affect includes a lack of facial expressions, lack of intonation while speaking, and little eye contact. If you are speaking to someone who has blunted emotional affect, it would be difficult to determine their feelings using their facial expressions and tone. * Avolition is experienced when they child shows few goal-focused behaviors and choices, and a lack of interest in goal-related activities, including personal hygiene. * Alogia can be seen when people use few words and lack fluency while speaking. * Anhedonia relates to an inability to find pleasure in activities that one previously found enjoyable, as well as the inability to remember previous enjoyable memories. * Asociality is a symptom seen when a person has no interest in socializing with others. These negative symptoms can severely impact children's and adolescents' abilities to function in school and in other public settings. Very early-onset schizophrenia refers to onset before the age of thirteen. The prodromal phase, which precedes psychotic symptoms, is characterized by deterioration in school performance, social withdrawal, disorganized or unusual behavior, a decreased ability to perform daily activities, a deterioration in self-care skills, bizarre hygiene and eating behaviors, changes in affect, a lack of impulse control, hostility and aggression, and lethargy. Auditory hallucinations are the most common of the positive symptoms in children. Auditory hallucinations may include voices that are conversing with each other or voices that are speaking directly to the children themselves. Many children with auditory hallucinations believe that if they do not listen to the voices, the voices will harm them or someone else. Tactile and visual hallucinations seem relatively rare. Children often attribute the hallucinatory voices to a variety of beings, including family members or other people, evil forces ("the Devil", "a witch", "a spirit"), animals, characters from horror movies (Bloody Mary, Freddy Krueger) and less clearly recognizable sources ("bad things," "the whispers"). Command auditory hallucinations (also known as imperative hallucinations) were common and experienced by more than half of the group in a study at Bellevue Hospital Center's Children's Psychiatric Inpatient Unit. Voices repeat: "Kill somebody!", "Kill her, kill her!". Delusions are reported in more than half of children with schizophrenia, but they are usually less complex than those of adults. Delusions are often connected with hallucinatory experiences. In one study, delusions were characterized as persecutory for the most part, but some children reported delusions of control. Many said they were being tortured by the beings causing their visual and auditory hallucinations, some thought disobeying their voices would cause them harm. Some degree of thought disorder was observed in a test group of children at Bellevue Hospital. They displayed illogicality, tangentiality (a serious disturbance in the associative thought process), and loosening of associations. Negative symptoms include apathy, avolition, and blunted emotional affect.
Childhood schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Bipolar disorder in children
Autism spectrum
Multiple complex developmental disorder
Tardive dysmentia
Asperger syndrome
Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified