This study examined childhood behavior problems in schizophrenic patients and their healthy siblings. Childhood Behavior Checklist (T. Achenbach, 1991) ratings were obtained from retrospective maternal reports, for 4 age periods: birth to 4 years, 4 to 8 years, 8 to 12 years, and 12 to 16 years. The results indicated that the patients had a variety of childhood behavior problems when compared to their siblings and that the various types of problems differed in their developmental course. Cluster analysis was conducted on the childhood behavior ratings for the schizophrenic patients, and 2 subgroups emerged. Cluster I showed more pronounced behavioral problems than Cluster II, and some of these problems were apparent in early childhood and increased with age. Cluster I also demonstrated greater neuromotor abnormalities in childhood.

These findings lend support to the assumption that vulnerability to schizophrenia may be subtly manifested in emotional behavior long before the onset of clinical symptoms.

This study examined the relation between preschizophrenic subjects' facial expressions of emotion in childhood home movies and two criterion variables: educational level (highest grade completed) and age at onset of illness. Earlier research suggest that premorbid affective blunting is associated with an earlier onset of illness and poorer prognosis in schizophrenia. It was, therefore, predicted that lower rates of both positive and negative facial expressions would be associated with lower levels of educational attainment and earlier age at onset of illness. The results indicated that childhood emotional expressions were not associated with educational level but were linked with age at onset. Preschizophrenic subjects who showed lower rates of negative emotion during late childhood/adolescence were younger at illness onset. Findings are discussed in light of previous reports linking affective symptoms with better prognosis in schizophrenia.

No abstract

No abstract