![]() ![]() The symptoms of schizophrenia are often classified as positive (symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior), negative (symptoms including flat affect, withdrawal, and emotional unresponsiveness), disorganized speech (including speech that is incomprehensible), and disorganized or catatonic behavior (including marked mood swings, sudden aggression, or confusion, followed by sudden motionlessness and staring). odd behaviors (i.e., an older child may regress significantly and begin acting like a younger child).disorganized or catatonic behavior (suddenly becoming agitated and confused, or sitting and staring, as if immobilized).social withdrawal (severe problems in making and keeping friends).flat affect (lack of emotional expression when speaking).delusions (ideas that seem real but are not based in reality).hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not real such as hearing voices telling them to do something).suspiciousness and/or paranoia (fearfulness that someone, or something, is going to harm them).detailed and bizarre thoughts and ideas.confused thinking (i.e., confusing television with reality).distorted perception of reality (difficulty telling dreams from reality).However, each adolescent may experience symptoms differently.Įarly warning signs of schizophrenia in adolescents may include: The following are the most common symptoms of schizophrenia. “Psychotic” refers to ideas, perceptions, or feelings that are grossly distorted from reality. One of the most disturbing and puzzling characteristics of schizophrenia is the sudden onset of its psychotic symptoms. They may begin to talk about bizarre ideas or fears and begin to cling more to parents. The adolescent may gradually become more shy and withdrawn. In adolescents with schizophrenia, behavior changes may occur slowly, over time, or have a sudden onset. Risks increase with multiple affected family members. If a parent has schizophrenia, the chance for an adolescent to have the disorder is 10 percent. A child born into a family with one or more family members affected by schizophrenia has a greater chance of developing schizophrenia than a child born into a family with no history of schizophrenia.Īfter a person has been diagnosed with schizophrenia in a family, the chance for a sibling to also be diagnosed with schizophrenia is 7 to 8 percent. Statistics indicate that schizophrenia affects approximately 2.4 million Americans. A sudden onset of the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia frequently occurs in middle to late adolescence. Schizophrenia is uncommon in children under the age of 12 and hard to identify in the early phases. Slightly more males develop schizophrenia in childhood however, by adolescence, schizophrenia affects males and females equally. There appears to be a different threshold of expression, which means that one gender is more likely to show the problem, over the other gender. Often, one gender (either males or females) is affected more frequently than the other in multifactor traits. The factors are usually both genetic and environmental, where a combination of genes from both parents, in addition to unknown environmental factors, produce the trait or condition. Multifactorial inheritance means that “many factors” are involved. Schizophrenia is considered to be multifactorially inherited. ![]() However, it is likely that many factors – genetic, behavioral, and environmental – play a role in the development of this condition. It is believed that a chemical imbalance in the brain is an inherited factor which is necessary for schizophrenia to develop. ![]() There is no known single cause responsible for schizophrenia. It is a severe, chronic, and disabling disturbance of the brain that causes distorted thinking, strange feelings, and unusual behavior and use of language and words. Schizophrenia is one of the most complex of all mental health disorders. ![]()
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