Introduction
Schizophrenia typically begins in young adulthood, but there are also frequent patients who show symptoms in childhood. In fact, schizophrenia is thought to have its roots in most people in childhood, but usually does not manifest itself until years or decades later. Since the symptoms usually manifest themselves differently in such young people than in adults and childhood schizophrenia is very rare, diagnosis is often difficult.
Causes of schizophrenia in children
The causes and triggers of schizophrenia are not yet fully understood, but are in principle independent of the age of onset of the disease. It is known that schizophrenia in adults and children is caused by a number of unfavorable risk factors. According to this, the susceptibility to psychosis, for example, is increased by Due to these disorders, there is an imbalance of the messenger substances in the brain, especially in the dopamine metabolism.
Complications during pregnancy or birth are also discussed as influencing factors. In adults, the first symptoms appear when these pre-existing conditions are accompanied by triggers such as stress or drug consumption. If the basic risk factors are particularly pronounced or if a very early stressor is added, the disease can also become apparent in childhood.
In some cases, these triggers can be identified, e.g. if the child has been abused or otherwise traumatized. However, many of the young patients were previously healthy and seem to fall ill out of nowhere. Since infantile schizophrenia is a rare clinical picture, much about it is still unknown.
- Genetic predisposition
- Damage to the brain structure
- Suboptimal development of the brain
Frequency
About 1% of all Germans suffer at least one episode of schizophrenic psychosis, most of them at the age of about 20-25 years. Only 4% of all schizophrenia patients show symptoms before the age of 15, less than 1% before the age of 10. Since the diagnosis of the child is often delayed, the numbers could be somewhat higher than currently assumed. Nevertheless, childhood schizophrenia is a very rare disease. This topic might also be of interest to you: Heredity of schizophrenia
