Pediatric schizophrenia refers to mental illness. The mental, cognitive and emotional functions of the child’s psyche are destroyed, the normal processes of child 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 allow them to separate reality from fiction. The child has many difficulties in communicating with relatives and peers. The patient is characterized by timidity, isolation, it is difficult for him to navigate in the real world. This disease does not completely resolve, but drugs and psychotherapy can ease its course.
Causes
We list the main ones:
- The cause of childhood and adolescent schizophrenia lies in genetic disorders. Mutations occurring in the DNA of patients in healthy children are not observed. Previously, medicine did not address the issue of genetics. Currently, a hereditary factor is allowed.
- Causes may be impaired brain cell activity. Such a diagnosis occurs with the formation of insufficiency of acetyl-histone bonds.
- Also, the cause of the disease can be an imbalance of certain substances in the children's body, which can lead to a failure in the metabolism of protein and carbohydrate compounds.
- There are also reasons that lie in late pregnancy, prolonged exposure to extreme situations, manifestations of violence against children, and frequent scandals in the home. It can be detrimental to the psyche: divorce of parents, viral infections transferred in the womb, her starvation during pregnancy.
- The reason may lie in child 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 blur. The manifestations of signs of the disease in standard groups are easily distinguished. Negative signs include:
- The disappearance of normal qualities that drop out and gradually disappear from the personality of sick children.
- Reducing the emotional background, the need for knowledge, decreased activity, interest in the environment.
- Speech is disturbed, thinking processes are deformed, and the intellectual level decreases.
- Motor degradation is manifested - the child stops moving on his legs and begins to crawl.
Productive attributes:
- 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 inappropriately, delusions appear about physical ugliness, which is not there, the appearance of anorexia is possible.
- Philosophical intoxication is manifested - 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 can occur earlier than in girls.
First signs
The first signs can be noticed up to seven years. 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. A preschooler begins to hear voices and speak with them, sees things that actually do not exist.
- Non-compliance with hygiene standards. The kid becomes indifferent to his appearance.
- Unreasonable anxiety, fear. The child begins to fear any unusual things, fears nonexistent.
- Isolation. A preschooler stops communicating with peers, becomes indifferent to games, does not know how to build long-term relationships. There is a state of extreme moodiness. The child has sharp, unjustified mood swings.
- Speech impairment. The ability to speak out adequately is lost, the child is not able to conduct dialogue.
- The randomness of thought. There is a confusion of dreams and fantastic stories with real events.
In such cases, it is good to keep a diary where the listed symptoms should be recorded. This will reveal the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents 14 years old, when it is already possible to make a diagnosis. When you visit a psychiatrist, the diary is very useful.
Forms
With any form of schizophrenia, irreversible mental defects occur. This emotional impoverishment, abulia, torn thinking and speech, as well as severe dementia.
Paranoid
This form is rare in children, symptoms of schizophrenia appear in adolescents 15 years of age and adults. However, the prerequisites appear at 10-12 years of age. They appear in the form of fears, delirium, persecution mania, philosophical intoxication. The child suddenly becomes very hostile, malicious, to a greater extent this is manifested in relation to relatives. He refuses food, 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 with him.
Catatonic
This is a form of teenage schizophrenia. Symptoms are distinguished by motor pathology. The patient is characterized by catatonic excitement, expressed in uniform movements and manipulations, unnatural mobility. He just can wave his hands.
Motor activity is replaced by a state of stupor, strong muscle tension, freezing in an uncomfortable position, immobility. The child closes and becomes estranged from the real world, depression begins, and negativity manifests itself. He refuses to eat, does not talk, is capable of hiding in a corner, unable to respond to questions.
Hebephrenic
With this form, the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents aged 14 are more common than in others. The child becomes distracted, he is tormented by insomnia and a sharp headache. He is fooling around, laughing for no reason, becoming excited. A teenager is capable of committing ridiculous acts that are not diverse. Eccentricity, antics and grimacing appear. Hallucinations, the occurrence of delusions are possible.
Simple
With a simple form, the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents 12 years old are more common., In adolescence, it is rarely diagnosed. The child’s interest in learning is sharply lost, 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 roam the street without purpose, and may commit illegal acts.
Grafted
With the vaccinated form of schizophrenia, symptoms in adolescents appear after a head injury or impaired brain activity. Schizophrenia, as it were, is grafted onto prepared soil, affecting children who are stubborn, capricious, withdrawn and irritable, possibly due to an unknown illness or intoxication.
Diagnostics
To diagnose schizophrenia in children, it is necessary to conduct laboratory tests and apply psychological methods. The psychiatrist suggests completing a comprehensive diagnosis.
It includes:
- Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain to detect typical changes in the structure of the brain. A study is conducted of the functional activity of each area of the brain to exclude a possible tumor.
- Electrical encephalography, necessary to reflect an explicit picture of brain bioelectric activity.
- Duplex scanning of blood vessels, which allows you to identify possible diseases of atherosclerosis and pathology of the venous outflow.
- Neurotest, in which the presence of autoantibodies to protein compounds in nerve cells is determined - the effectiveness of the functions of the nervous system is diagnosed.
- Psychological tests to determine the adequacy of thinking, check memory, perception and attention, thereby identifying failures in brain activity.
At the same time, the diagnosis 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 study the cerebrospinal fluid for infections and malignant tumors.
Drawings
This is an effective method that complements clinical research. Creativity allows a sick child to express their feelings, reveals typical trends in psychological disorder.
Drawings on a free topic are considered the best when the assignment is not specified.
According to certain signs contained in the figures, symptoms of schizophrenia are detected in adolescents and at an earlier age. It:
- Symbolism is the encryption in the drawing of some information. It is impossible for people to understand the picture, the child himself is not able to explain his work.
- Stereotype - repetition of drawings. In each new work, the same image, object, form is duplicated.
- The rupture of the "associative apparatus" is the incoherence and fragmentation of the components of the object depicted by the child. A sick child draws a person or an animal in parts, sometimes on different sheets.
- Unexplained forms - when the picture depicts diverse, incoherent elements, unfinished objects of an indefinite shape. Living things look very strange.
- Agglutination - the figures show a smooth transition from one work to the plot of another.
Symptoms of schizophrenia are better tracked in color drawings. Unnatural color combinations can be a sign of disease. The grass in the picture may be black and the sun red. If the picture is done in dull gray colors, but there is a bright spot or flash on it, then the child will soon have an attack.
Tests
Schizophrenia is an unusual disease and does not lend itself to clinical research methods. To understand the patient’s inner world, psychological tests are performed. Mask test, for example.
The patient is shown a drawing of a mask of a curved shape, he looks at it from the concave side. A normal child is able to perceive round shapes, the play of light and shadow, and he perceives the mask as convex. And only the 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, starting from the most attractive to the annoying. The test should be carried out in a fairly bright room, natural lighting must be used. The test mechanism is based on a subconscious choice of colors. If the child is the first to choose yellow, then, according to the analysis and decoding of the answers, a conclusion is made about the state of health, since this color is preferred for mentally unhealthy people.
Treatment
Treatment is carried out both on an outpatient basis and in a hospital. If the patient has an acute form, then he will be hospitalized, since he is a danger not only to society, but also to himself. In addition to the use of medicines, psychotherapy and the passage of sessions of a special rehabilitation program are needed.
Psychotherapy
This method uses behavioral models in its practice: “token policy”, “enhanced correction”, “removal technique”, “misconduct fee”.
Effective methods are those that help express themselves in creativity to patients with schizophrenia. With severe symptoms in adolescents, art therapy, participation in psychodramatic productions, body-oriented techniques, dance, integrative therapy and other existential methods are used.
Preparations
With progressive schizophrenia, children need psychotropic drugs, such as atypical antipsychotics, which act on nerve receptors and can inhibit negative manifestations and maintain functions such as thinking and perception at a good level.
The greatest effect is given by Thorazin, Geodon, Haloperidol, Ziprex, Prolyxin, Clozapine, Stelazin, Melaril, Triphalon and Navan. In no case can you stop taking the medicine without the recommendation of a doctor, as this is fraught with 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, antipsychotics have quite a few side effects. Therefore, the attending physician must monitor the symptoms of insulin resistance in order to avoid the provocation of diabetes.
Electroshock
Electroshock as a treatment for schizophrenia with symptoms in adolescents is used only in extreme cases. The purpose of this method is to remove the child from a deep depressive state. During the procedure, the brain is exposed to a short discharge of electric current.
Before this, the patient must be euthanized and injected with the necessary drugs to allow the muscles to relax. Treatment with electric shock can save you during severe depressive conditions in which there are suicide attempts.