The early screening for the risk of schizophrenia in childhood
Poster A12, Monday, October%208, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Yukiko Hamasaki1, Takao Nakayama1, Takatoshi Hikida2, Toshiya Murai3; 1Kyoto Women's University, 2Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, 3The Department of Psychiatry, Kyoto University
Background and Aims: This study is a retrospective report of childhood neurobehavioral assessment in adult patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls using the CBCL to elucidate the subclinical characteristics of schizophrenic children and to find out indicators which predict later development of schizophrenia. Method: Schizophrenia outpatients in his/her twenties who fulfill DSM-IV-TR criteria were investigated. Normal healthy subjects were also examined as sex- and age-matched controls. By modified use of the CBCL as a retrospective assessment questionnaire, the parents of the patients and of control subjects rated their childhood (aged 6-8 years) behaviors. Results: A logistic regression using the eight CBCL syndrome subscale T-scores adequately classified 86% of the population. Among the eight subscale T-scores, those of Withdrawn, Thought problems and Aggressive behavior were significantly associated with risk of schizophrenia, although any of these mean scores were not in clinical range. Concerning Aggressive behavior, patients showed a significantly lower score than controls. Conclusion: The results suggest that subclinical neurobehavioral characteristics of schizophrenia already exist in the patients' childhood. The Combination Pattern of these subclinical characteristics would predict later development of schizophrenia. We introduce the early screening methods for the risk of schizophrenia using obtained logistic regression model.
Topic Area: Diagnosis and Phenomenology