Introduction: Mental health assessment in autistic individuals with intellectual disabilities may be challenging. Findings from non-autistic samples indicate overlap between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and psychotic disorder/schizophrenia, but little is known about this potential overlap in autistic people. Methods: Explorative,…

The aim of this research was to examine effects of cigarette smoking on depression and anxiety among children and adolescents (youth) with early onset schizophrenia and/or psychosis. Data were obtained from the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (CMHS Program). Cubic…

This monograph describes how an SOC approach, coupled with specialized early psychosis intervention, can create a sustainable infrastructure, significantly decrease the duration of untreated psychosis, and improve service delivery and outcomes for youth and young adults with early signs of psychosis. [This product was made possible, in part, with…

Background: In recent decades, the assessment of neurological soft signs (NSS) in patients with psychosis has become a subject of special interest. The study of the progression of NSS during adolescence will provide valuable information about the role of NSS as endophenotypes or biomarkers and about brain development at a stage in which brain…

Voice hearing (VH) is often regarded as pathognomic for schizophrenia. The purpose of this article is to review and integrate historical, clinical, epidemiological, and phenomenological evidence in order to suggest that VH may be more appropriately understood as a dissociative rather than a psychotic phenomenon. First, we discuss the lifetime…

Background: Only one study has used a prospective method to analyze the diagnostic stability of first psychotic episodes in children and adolescents. The Child and Adolescent First-Episode Psychosis Study (CAFEPS) is a 2-year, prospective longitudinal study of early-onset first episodes of psychosis (EO-FEP). Aim: To describe diagnostic stability…

Objective: Given the fundamental role of thought disorder in schizophrenia, subtle communication disturbance may be a valuable predictor of subsequent development of psychosis. Here we examined the contribution of thought and communication disturbance to the prediction of outcome in adolescents identified as putatively prodromal for psychosis.…

A comparison of clinical features and adult outcome in adolescents with three types of psychotic disorders: schizophrenic (SPh), schizoaffective (SA) and bipolar with psychotic features (BPP). Subjects (n = 41) were finally diagnosed (DSM-IV criteria) with SPh (n = 17), SA (n = 11) or BPP (n = 13). Clinical evaluation took place at onset and at a…

Objective: To examine the diagnostic stability and the functional outcome of patients with early-onset psychosis (EOP) over a 2-year follow-up period. Methods: A total of 24 patients (18 males (75%) and 6 females (25%), mean age [plus or minus] SD: 15.7 [plus or minus] 1.6 years) with a first episode of EOP formed the sample. Psychotic symptoms…

Diagnosing psychotic disorders in young people is difficult. High rates of co-morbidity may be one reason for this difficulty, but it may also be the case that current diagnostic categories are not the most useful when approaching the care of young people with psychotic symptoms. The Northern Ireland Early Onset Psychosis Study is the first study…

The regional gray matter volumes of adolescents with first-episode psychosis are compared with those of a control group. Magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 70 patients with early onset FEP and on 51 individuals without FEP. Findings revealed that volume deficits in the left medial frontal gray matter were common in individuals with…

Several explanations for adolescence as the beginning of the high risk age, particularly for the schizophrenias, are offered. After discussing the nature of adolescence as distinguished from puberty, and then considering the nature of schizophrenia, some data are reported from a long range study of young adult psychiatric patients, both…

In a birth cohort prenatally exposed to rubella, we assessed whether prospectively documented premorbid neuromotor dysfunction, mannerisms, deviant behaviors, and temperament during childhood and adolescence were impaired in cases who developed depressive disorder (DD) relative to rubella-exposed controls and cases who developed schizophrenia…

Objective: The objective of the present study is to replicate findings in first-episode psychosis reporting a smaller volume in brain structures in a population with adolescent onset. Method: Magnetic resonance imaging studies were performed on 23 psychotic adolescents (12-18 years old, 17 males, 6 females) consecutively admitted to an adolescent…

Some researchers have attempted to connect suicide to a general history of mental illness; others have searched for diagnosis-free suicide risk factors; and still others have argued that different risk profiles may emerge for different diagnoses. In addition to these issues, it appears that suicide completers and suicide attempters show somewhat…