Adolescent Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder that impacts a broad range of a person’s social and developmental functioning. Until the recent past, most of the research done on schizophrenia did not include children or adolescents who suffer from the disorder. During adolescence, important changes take place in brain development. These changes make adolescence a period of both vulnerability and opportunity. Emergence of psychosis and schizophrenia may be associated with abnormal brain development during adolescence. This book discusses the findings of studies that focus on abnormal brain development during the premorbid period of psychosis and schizophrenia. Cognitive neuroscience constructs of visuospatial memory and working memory are associated with adult- and adolescent-onset schizophrenia. This book reviews the existing literature on the topic and explores the nature of and association between visuospatial memory in adolescent onset schizophrenia. The prevalence of psychotic symptoms in the general population, particularly in children and adolescents, is also explored. The significance of psychotic symptoms in relation to psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and its relation to social factors, such as childhood abuse is examined. To deal with schizophrenic young patients in a hospital, psychoanalytical psychotherapeutic teamwork is reviewed. The transference relation between patient and therapist, and what it entails, is also discussed.