Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that occurs in men and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. According to the American Psychological Association, between 0.5 and 1.5 percent of adults worldwide are affected. Schizophrenia is unusual in that symptoms of the disease typically do not emerge until adulthood. Early signs of this illness are easy to misinterpret; however, there are certain behaviors that are common among those with emerging symptoms. In addition, research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2010 suggests that some cognitive and motor characteristics are common among children who later become schizophrenic in adulthood.
Early Behavioral Signs
Before the first onset of schizophrenic symptoms, there is typically a period of time called the prodromal phase in which changes in behavior are evident. During this pre-onset, the individual often withdraws from friends, family and social activities, and may lose interest in school or work. He may also stop attending to his personal hygiene and often demonstrate an increase in irritability and angry outbursts. Toward the end of this stage, behaviors often become increasingly more bizarre and unusual. Odd beliefs, ritualistic behavior and paranoid thinking may be more evident to observers.
Some examples of these latter behaviors include things like refusing to eat at all or refusing to eat certain food brands or types, thinking that others are trying to poison or hurt him or his family, acting suspicious of others for no reason, a newly found fascination with numbers and dates, or an excessive collection of something like newspaper or magazine clippings.
Early Cognitive Signs
In addition to behavior signs of early schizophrenia, cognitive changes can also indicate the onset of the prodromal or pre-onset phase. Individuals may experience a decline in working memory and become forgetful and easily confused or lost. They may also start to have difficulty with activities of daily living, such as cooking or laundry, that they were able to do before. Often, early symptoms cause the individual to appear preoccupied and distracted. This may reflect attention difficulties. Slowed motor coordination and increased difficulty with planning and problem solving are also common.
Possible Differences in Children who Later Develop Schizophrenia
In an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry (2010), a review of the literature notes that children who later develop schizophrenia exhibit both deficits and delays in specific areas. Starting in preschool, impairments in verbal areas are present, specifically in the ability of the child to verbally understand concepts and to use language as a way to reason, argue or think about a problem. Children who later become schizophrenic also lag behind their peers in other skills involving attention, working memory and the ability to take in and process information.
Similar deficits have been shown in children who later become depressed, but the difference is that the ability to perform these types of thinking activities can fluctuate up and down in depression. In contrast, the delay in children who later become schizophrenic is steady, meaning they tend to remain behind their peers. It is important to note that schizophrenia is rare and therefore very few children who have delays or deficits in these areas will actually become schizophrenic. However, when combined with a family history of schizophrenia and environmental stressors (such as abuse, foster care, neglect, etc.) problems in these areas indicate that the child may be in a high risk group for developing this disease.
