Schizophrenia at Childhood and Adolescence

Overview

The research indicated that two characteristics were valid for the research in schizophrenia, especially in schizophrenia at the child age and adolescence, specifically perinatal damage and increased irritability of the nervous system. The irritability is caused by imperfect coordination of the excitation and inhibition system. In these patients there is a slightly higher occurrence of neurodegenerative stigmata (s.c. craniofacial dysmorphia). There is also a more frequent occurrence of velocardiofacial syndrome Di George/VCFS). Neuropathological and cytoarchitectonic changes in limbic structures, in hippocampus, septum, corpus callosum, in temporal and frontal lobes, changes in brain/chamber ratio and general brain asymmetry confirm the model of intrauterine programmed “error” and represent a marker of vulnerability in the individual at risk. Genetic factors determine the physical basis of the personality (resistance), but psychic disorder is the results of precipitation of the effects of genetic, biological-organic, developmental and environmental factors. Neurodevelopmental theory on the origin of schizophrenia assumes that inclination to the disease is present and can be therefore determined from the earliest stages of the individual’s life and becomes manifest in biological and biochemical as well as cognitive and psychological deviations from normal course of development.

Key words:
perinatal complications, physical anomalies and developmental abnormalities in schizophrenia with early origin, velocardiofacial syndrome DiGeorge/VCFS).