Childhood schizophrenia is a mental illness. The mental, cognitive and emotional functions of the child's psyche are destroyed, the normal processes of the child's consciousness are replaced by delusions and hallucinations. The personality of the child and his relationship with the world are radically changing.
In the minds of schizophrenic children, real events are mixed with imaginary ones. The confusion formed in the head does not give them the opportunity to separate reality from fiction. The child has many difficulties in communicating with relatives and peers. The patient is characterized by fearfulness, isolation, it is difficult for him to navigate in the real world. This disease does not go away completely, but drugs and psychotherapy can alleviate its course.
Reasons
Let's list the main ones:
- The cause of childhood and adolescent schizophrenia lies in genetic disorders. Mutations that occur in the DNA of patients are not observed in he althy children. Previously, medicine did not address the issue ofgenetics. Hereditary factor is currently allowed.
- The reason may be a violation of the activity of brain cells. Such a diagnosis occurs when there is a deficiency of acetyl-histone bonds.
- Also, the cause of the disease can be an imbalance of certain substances in the child's body, which can lead to a failure in the metabolism of protein and carbohydrate compounds.
- There are other reasons that lie in late pregnancy, prolonged exposure to extreme situations, violence against children, frequent scandals in the house. The following can have a detrimental effect on the psyche: parental divorce, viral infections in the womb, her starvation during pregnancy.
- The reason may lie in children's drug addiction, and in the use of psychotropic substances.
How to recognize?
Symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescence are not particularly pronounced, they are characterized by incompleteness and blurring. Manifestations of signs of the disease in standard groups are easily distinguished. Negative signs include:
- Disappearance of normal qualities that fall out and are gradually erased from the personality of sick children.
- Decrease in emotional background, need for knowledge, decrease in activity, interest in the environment.
- Speech is disturbed, thinking processes are deformed, the intellectual level is reduced.
- Motor degradation appears - the child stops moving on his feet and starts to crawl.
Productivesigns:
- The appearance in the minds of patients with hallucinations, delusions, fantasies, fears, taken by the child for reality.
- The child begins to perceive his own appearance inadequately, delusional ideas appear about physical deformity that does not exist, anorexia may appear.
- Philosophical intoxication appears - obsession with abstract problems, accompanied by primitive reflections on high topics.
- Children show rudeness, cruelty, sexual disinhibition is possible, a tendency to alcohol and drugs is manifested.
Symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescent boys may appear earlier than in girls.
First signs
The first signs can be noticed before the age of seven. Observation of the child makes it possible to identify oddities in his behavior. In the following cases, it becomes necessary to visit a psychiatrist:
- Paranoia. The child imagines that he is being humiliated, that the whole world is against him.
- Hallucinations. The preschooler begins to hear voices and talk to them, sees things that do not actually exist.
- Failure to comply with hygiene standards. The kid becomes indifferent to his appearance.
- Unreasonable anxiety, fear. The child begins to be afraid of any unusual things, afraid of the non-existent.
- Isolation. A preschooler stops communicating with peers, becomes indifferent to games, and cannot build long-term relationships. A state of extreme moodiness sets in. The child has sharpunjustified mood swings.
- Speech disorder. The ability to adequately speak out is lost, the child is not able to conduct a dialogue.
- Chaotic thought. There comes a confusion of dreams and fantastic stories with real events.
In such cases, it is good to keep a diary, where you should write down the listed signs. This will reveal the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents of 14 years old, when it is already possible to make a diagnosis. When visiting a psychiatrist, the diary is very useful.
Shapes
In any form of schizophrenia, irreversible mental defects occur. This is emotional impoverishment, abulia, broken thinking and speech, as well as severe dementia.
Paranoid
This form is rare in children, symptoms of schizophrenia appear in adolescents of 15 years and adults. However, the prerequisites appear at the age of 10-12. They appear in the form of fears, delusions, persecution mania, philosophical intoxication. The child suddenly becomes very hostile, vicious, to a greater extent this manifests itself in relation to relatives. He refuses to eat, is able to bring himself to anorexia. It seems to him that everyone is against him, they want to poison him or do something terrible to him.
Catonic
This is a form of adolescent schizophrenia. Symptoms differ in motor pathology. The patient is characterized by catatonic excitation, expressed in monotonous movements and manipulations, unnatural mobility. He can just wave his arms.
Motor activity is changinga state of stupor, strong muscle tension, freezing in an uncomfortable position, immobility. The child closes and becomes detached from the real world, depression begins, negativism manifests itself. He refuses to eat, does not talk, is able to hide in a corner, unable to respond to questions.
Hebephrenic
In this form, the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents of 14 years of age appear more often than in others. The child becomes distracted, he is tormented by insomnia and an acute headache. He fools around, laughs for no reason, gets excited. A teenager is capable of doing ridiculous things that do not differ in variety. Eccentricity, antics and grimacing appear. Possible hallucinations, the emergence of crazy ideas.
Simple
In a simple form, the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents 12 years of age are more common., In adolescence, it is rarely diagnosed. The child abruptly loses interest in learning, lethargy appears, he becomes indifferent and withdrawn. The intellectual level decreases, paranoia begins, hallucinations are present. He begins to show aggression if he is forced to attend school, expresses a desire to run away from home, begins to wander along the street aimlessly, and may commit illegal acts.
Grafted
In the vaccinated form of schizophrenia, symptoms in adolescents appear after a head injury or brain disorder. Schizophrenia, as it were, takes root on prepared soil, affecting children who are stubborn, capricious, withdrawn andirritable, possibly due to unknown diseases or intoxications.
Diagnosis
For the diagnosis of schizophrenia in children, it is necessary to conduct laboratory tests and apply psychological methods. The psychiatrist offers a comprehensive diagnosis.
It includes:
- Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain to reveal changes in the structure of the brain typical of this disease. The functional activity of each area of the brain is being studied to rule out a possible tumor.
- Electrical encephalography needed to provide a clear picture of brain bioelectrical activity.
- Duplex scanning of vessels, which allows to detect possible atherosclerosis and venous outflow pathology.
- Neurotest, which determines the presence of autoantibodies to protein compounds in nerve cells - the efficiency of the functions of the nervous system is diagnosed.
- Psychological tests to determine the adequacy of thinking, check memory, perception and attention, thereby identifying disruptions in brain activity.
At the same time, diagnostics of the whole organism is carried out. The digestive system, respiratory, endocrine and cardiovascular systems are checked. Be sure to check the blood for the presence of drugs, Epstein-Barr virus and herpes. In some cases, it is necessary to examine the cerebrospinal fluid for infections and malignant tumors.
Drawings
This is an effective method that complements clinicalresearch. Creativity allows a sick child to express his feelings, reveals the typical tendencies of a psychological disorder.
Drawings on a free topic are considered the best when the task is not specified.
According to certain signs contained in the drawings, symptoms of schizophrenia are detected in adolescents and at an earlier age. This is:
- Symbolism is the encryption of some information in a drawing. It is impossible for others to understand the drawing, the child himself is not able to explain his work.
- Stereotyping - repetition of drawings. In each new work, the same image, object, form is duplicated.
- Gap of the "associative apparatus" - incoherence and fragmentation of the constituent parts of the object depicted by the child. A sick child draws a person or animal in parts, sometimes on different sheets.
- Unexplained forms - when the drawing depicts various, incoherent elements, unfinished objects of indefinite shape. Living beings look very strange.
- Agglutination - the drawings show a smooth transition from one work to the plot of another.
Symptoms of schizophrenia are better tracked in color drawings. Unnaturalness in the combination of colors can be a sign of a disease. The grass in the picture can be black, and the sun is red. If the picture is made with dull gray colors, but there is a bright spot or a flash on it, it means that the child will soon have an attack.
Tests
Schizophrenia is a diseaseunusual and clinical methods of research is not amenable. To understand the inner world of the patient, psychological tests are carried out. Mask test, e.g.
The patient is shown a drawing of a curved mask, he looks at it from the concave side. A normal child is able to perceive rounded shapes, the play of light and shadow, and he perceives the mask as convex. And only a schizophrenic will determine the concavity of the mask.
You can use the Luscher color test. The child is invited to choose colors according to the degree of pleasantness, from the most attractive to the most annoying. The test should be carried out in a sufficiently bright room, natural lighting should be used. The test mechanism is based on the subconscious choice of colors. If the child chooses yellow first, then, according to the analysis and decoding of the answers, a conclusion is made about the state of he alth, since this color is preferable for mentally ill people.
Treatment
Treatment is carried out both on an outpatient basis and in a hospital. If the patient has an acute form, then he is hospitalized, because he is a danger not only to society, but also to himself. In addition to the use of drugs, psychotherapy and sessions of a special rehabilitation program are needed.
Psychotherapy
This method uses behavioral models in its practice: “token politics”, “enhanced correction”, “removal technique”, “payment for misconduct”.
Methods that help schizophrenic patients express themselves in creativity are considered effective. With severe symptoms in adolescents, apply:art therapy, participation in psychodramatic performances, body-oriented methods, dance, integrative therapy and other existential methods.
Drugs
Children with progressive schizophrenia need psychotropic drugs, such as atypical neuroleptics, which act on nerve receptors and can inhibit negative manifestations and maintain functions such as thinking and perception at a good level.
Thorazin, Geodon, Haloperidol, Zyprex, Prolixin, Clozapine, Stelazin, Melaril, Trifalon and Navan give the greatest effect. In no case should you stop taking medication without a doctor's recommendation, as this is fraught with a relapse.
The dose of the drug is determined by the doctor, because, given the stage of the disease, the correct selection is difficult. In addition, neuroleptics have quite a few side effects. Therefore, the attending physician needs to monitor the symptoms of insulin resistance in order to avoid provoking diabetes.
Electroshock
Electroshock as a treatment for symptomatic schizophrenia in adolescents is used only in extreme cases. The purpose of this method is to bring the child out of a deep depression. During the procedure, the brain is exposed to a short discharge of electric current.
Before this, the patient must be put to sleep and the necessary drugs should be injected to allow the muscles to relax. Treatmentwith the help of electric shock can save during severe depressive states, in which there are suicide attempts.
