This Practice Parameter reviews the literature on the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with schizophrenia. Early-onset schizophrenia is diagnosed using the same criteria as in adults and appears to be continuous with the adult form of the disorder. Clinical standards suggest that effective treatment includes antipsychotic medications combined with psychoeducational, psychoth...

Although schizophrenia has been diagnosed in children, this group of disorders has received too little attention in the clinical and research literature. Preliminary data suggest that early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and very early onset schizophrenia (VEOS) tend to have a worse outcome than adult onset schizophrenia, and seem to be related to a greater familial vulnerability, due to genetic, ps...

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an enzyme involved in metabolic pathways of importance for nucleotide synthesis and methylation of DNA, membranes, proteins and lipids. The MTHFR gene includes a common polymorphism (rs1801133 or C677T), which is associated with enzyme activity. The T-allele of the C677T polymorphism has been associated with earlier age at onset of schizophrenia in...

Evidence is accumulating that developmental abnormalities, poor neuromotor function, and increased problem behavior precede the manifestation of schizophrenia itself. Information on school performance and behavioral development was obtained for 49 pairs of twins in which at least one twin suffered from schizophrenia (20 monozygotic [MZ], 29 dizygotic [DZ]) and for 43 pairs of healthy control tw...

Violence is elevated in older adolescents and adults with schizophrenia; however, little is known about younger children. This report focuses on rates of violence in younger children with schizophrenic-spectrum illnesses. A retrospective review of structured diagnostic interviews from a case series of 81 children, ages 4-15 years of age, with childhood onset of schizophrenic-spectrum illness is...

Abnormalities in GABAergic interneurons, particularly fast-spiking interneurons (FSINs) that generate gamma (γ; ∼30-120 Hz) oscillations, are hypothesized to disrupt prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent cognition in schizophrenia. Although γ rhythms are abnormal in schizophrenia, it remains unclear whether they directly influence cognition. Mechanisms underlying schizophrenia's typical post-adoles...

Epidemiological and clinical studies have uniformly reported an overrepresentation of females with very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychotic disorder (VLOS), in stark contrast to the sex distribution early-onset schizophrenia. Various explanatory models been proposed account for these differences, including (a) antidopaminergic effects estrogen, (b) differential vulnerability subtypes, (c) n...

Results Themortalityratewas 2228 per100 000 person-years during followup.Both all-causemortality and suicide rateswere significantlygreater inmale thanin female patients.Age at illness onset (445 years), duration of illness (510 years), age greater than 50 years, physical illness, inability towork, male gender, and neverhavingreceived treatmentwere identified as independentpredictors of increas...

Adolescent-onset schizophrenia provides an exceptional opportunity to explore the neuropathology of schizophrenia free from the potential confounds of prolonged periods of medication and disease interactions with age-related neurodegeneration. Our aim was to investigate structural grey and white matter abnormalities in adolescent-onset schizophrenia. Whole-brain voxel-wise investigation of both...