Abstract
During the past two decades, the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health has conducted a longitudinal study (including long-term prospective follow-up) of childhood-onset schizophrenia, a rare form of the disorder. Critical to this research has been accurate diagnosis. Outpatient screening has accurately diagnosed 55% of the 121 childhood-onset schizophrenia patients in the study to date. However, inpatient observation including drug-free observation has proven crucial to ruling out 96 children with alternative diagnoses who had been provisionally admitted for inpatient study. Standardized clinical ratings from outpatient screening only predicted 62% of these nonschizophrenia patients. Historically, medication-free observation was standard clinical care for difficult and unusual patients; this should be employed when possible in similar situations.
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Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health.
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Gochman, P., Miller, R. & Rapoport, J.L. Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia: The Challenge of Diagnosis. Curr Psychiatry Rep 13, 321–322 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-011-0212-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-011-0212-4