How do doctors diagnose schizophrenia in children?

Answer 1

The first signs are the behavioral changes in the person. All of a sudden they start acting different, they stop hanging out with friends and family, they want to be left alone, the loose interest in everything and sometimes they hear voices inside their heads telling them to do things or distracting them from focussing on their regular activities.

Answer 2

First, the person is referred to a psychiatrist. This may happen after a friend or family member notices odd behavior. It may also happen if the person is brought to the police and/or emergency room and officials notice that the person has some odd symptoms.

Second, the psychiatrist looks at the person and decides on a list of possible diagnoses. Someone with schizophrenia may originally appear to have several related disorders, including Bipolar disorder, depression, autism, or another psychotic disorder.

Third, the psychiatrist looks at a book called the DSM. The DSM, standing for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, has a list of criteria for who can be diagnosed with schizophrenia and who can't. If the person is diagnosed with Schizophrenia, then treatment can begin.

A. Characteristic symptoms: Two or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated):

(1) Delusions

(2) Hallucinations

(3) Disorganized speech (e.g. frequent derailment or incoherence)

(4) Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior

(5) Negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening (emotional dulling), alogia (poverty of speech) or avolition (lack of motivation).

Note: Only one Criterion A symptom is required if delusions are bizarre (not realistic hallucinations, like thinking that one's significant other is cheating on him or her) or the hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other.

B. Social/occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of function such as work, interpersonal life, or self care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset (or, if the onset is in childhood or adolescence, failure to achieve the expected level of interpersonal, academic, or occupational achievement).

C. Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 months. This 6-month period must include at least 1 months of symptoms (or less if successfully treated) that meet Criterion A (i.e., active-phase symptoms) and may include periods of onset or residual (after treatment) symptoms.

D. Schizoaffective and Mood Disorder exclusion: Schizoaffective Disorder and Mood Disorder must have been ruled out.

E. Substance/general medical condition exclusion: The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., an abused drug or a medication) or a general medical condition.

F. Relationship to a Pervasive Developmental Disorder: If there is a history of Autistic Disorder or another Pervasive Developmental Disorder, the additional diagnosis of Schizophrenia is made only if prominent delusions or hallucinations are also present for at least a month (or less if successfully treated).

(The DSM-IV. This is the exact text of the entry except for clarifications made.)

Answer 3

Doctors diagnose schizophrenia in children in the same way as in adults or teenagers. They look at the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and decide whether or not the symptoms fit the diagnosis.

Answer 4

In order to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, you must first have at least two of these characteristics. Delusions: where a person believes that something that is not true is happening to the person, hallucinations, where the person sees or hears something no one else is able to, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms. There are many forms of delusions and hallucinations that a person may show. The first one is called the delusion of grandeur, where the patient may believe they are famous or an important figure in many people's lives, such as the president or God. The next delusion is called the delusion of guilt, where a person may feel that they have committed a serious sin or crime. The third delusion is the somatic delusion, where the person believes that they have developed something wrong with their body. Two examples are a patient may believe they have cancer, or they may believe that their bones have been replaced with straws, or their intestines have been replaced with a garden hose. Another delusion would be the persecutory delusion, the most common type of delusion. These delusions cause the patient to believe and blame someone that they are doing something harmful or hateful towards the patient, such as poisoning his soda. The last type of delusion is simply thought control, where the patient believes that their thoughts are being removed from their head, or that thoughts are entering into his head.

There are also many types of hallucinations that a person may have. There are two main hallucinations, auditory and visual. Auditory is the most common, where the patient hears things that no one else is able to hear. Visual is similar to mirages, where the patient sees something that no one else is able to see. The next hallucination is tactile hallucinations, where the person feels something no one else is able to feel. Examples of these are that they may feel unexplainable emotions; they may feel cold in a warm room, or vice versa. They may also feel like they are in water in a dry area, or that there is something sharp poking at them. The least common types of hallucinations are Olfactory or Gustatory, the ability to smell and taste, respectively. These are very rare, but when it does occur, the patient often smells or tastes something that is not there, and the tastes and smells are mostly things that are unpleasant to the patient, such as rotten food, or garbage.

The individual may also show these two types of symptoms, disorganized speech or behavior. Someone whose speech is disorganized is able to speak like anyone else, except what they speak about

is hard to understand, because they talk about things that do not go together. An example of this is where they may be talking about their favorite type of yogurt and in the same sentence say something about a forest. Mostly these are the patient silently linking the two objects together, such as they may have thought of yogurt, which is made of milk, which comes from cows, which eat grass, which can come in fields, and there were fields by the forest he grew up near as a child. This is a mild form of disorganized speech.

A more severe form of disorganized speech is where the individual uses clauses that make no sense together, for example, they may say, "the dog is on the roller coaster in the store, I want more". The clause itself makes no sense, and schizophrenics tend to rhyme their sentences with useless rhymes. The most extreme case of speech disorganization is when a patient combines words that make no sense together whatsoever. These are called word salads. A typical word salad may sound like this: Run simple cake gate spilling baby. These types of speech baffle scientists, because we naturally combine words that sound good together, so to say six words that have nothing to do with each other as quickly as these patients do, it would be difficult for our brains to put the pieces together.

A patient may also exhibit these forms of disorganized behavior. They often need help dressing. They may wear a winter cat in the summer and shorts with sandals in the winter. Their clothes are also mismatched or dirty. These patients also need someone to make their food for them, and these patients are always swearing or cussing loudly in public.

A patient also may have negative symptoms. An anhedonia symptom is where the patient has the inability to enjoy life. They are very passive and their typical day would consist of eating and sleeping. An avolition symptom is where the patient has no motivation to start of complete tasks. An alogia symptom is where the patient has the inability to speak. When a therapist is trying to speak to them, they do not respond to anything, or they require coaxing to even speak.