WHAT IS PSYCHOSIS?
Childhood psychosis is rare. It is a severe mental disorder where children interpret reality abnormally. With childhood psychosis, the early age of onset presents special challenges for diagnosis, treatment, education, and emotional and social development. Early intervention may improve a youngster’s prognosis. Unfortunately, the subtle warning signs are apt to be attributed to the normal growing pains of adolescence.
Psychosis is an extreme mental state. Children with the disorder show impaired thinking and emotions that cause them to lose contact with reality. This could mean hearing or seeing things that aren’t there (hallucinations), or believing things that aren’t true (delusions). The illness most often associated with psychosis is schizophrenia. Schizophrenia causes people to waver between reality and their own distorted perception of reality. Schizophrenia usually doesn’t show up until very late in adolescence or early adulthood. Recently, however, doctors have been working to identify high-risk kids whose symptoms could be early warning signs of psychosis.
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What Symptoms Should You Look for?
Schizophrenia is the most chronic and debilitating of all psychiatric conditions. It is also the most widespread form of psychosis. The symptoms of childhood onset schizophrenia are essentially the same as adult symptoms, but the degree of impairment tends to be greater when symptoms appear early in life. Symptoms can have a profound impact on a child’s behavior and development. Symptoms of schizophrenia vary depending on the age of the child.
The Earliest Indications of Childhood Schizophrenia May Include Developmental Problems, Such as:
- Language delays.
- Late or unusual crawling.
- Late walking.
- Other abnormal motor behaviors — for example, rocking or arm flapping.