Psychosis, Delusions & Early-Onset, Pediatric Schizophrenia Under Diagnosis

Schizophrenia has long been considered a mental health disorder that manifests in adolescence in early adulthood. For some schizophrenia patients, the complication may begin in early grade school.

Pediatric schizophrenia is a mental health complication in some children. Generally defined as the mental health complication that affects children under age 16, the development of schizophrenia is often mistaken for pediatric bipolar disorder. If you are the parent of a child who has been diagnosed with pediatric mental health disorder, it is important that your child's psychiatrist clearly define the complication. In many cases, pediatric psychiatrists may label a mental health complication as something other than schizophrenia.

If your child seems to express strange or bizarre delusions, usually involving pets, monsters or even toys, this may be a sign of the early onset of schizophrenia. Auditory hallucinations are also quite common with nearly 80 percent of all children suffering from pediatric schizophrenia reporting they hear strange noises. Language development complications are also quite common. In contrast, for children with pediatric bipolar disorder, these symptoms are not generally present.

While depression is common in the pediatric schizophrenia patient, they usually only occur following a psychosis period. In fact, when your child experiences the first psychosis period, the development of pediatric schizophrenia will result in symptoms that last as long as 90 weeks. In contrast, children with pediatric bipolar disorder may only experience psychosis as long as 19 weeks.

Another common feature of children with early-onset bipolar disorder involves the co morbid presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or the presence of oppositional defiance disorder. If your child does not seem to suffer from these particular childhood disorders, then the diagnosis of bipolar may be inaccurate and, instead, your child may be suffering from early-onset schizophrenia.