At what age is Schizophrenia usually Diagnosed?

There are many kinds of mental disorders and conditions that affect all age groups of patients. Those that affect the patients later in their life can be easily identified and diagnosed as adults are able to communicate their feelings and emotions and can even identify the changes within themselves.

The problem occurs when mental disorders affect small children or in some cases, when children are born with such disorders, it is hard to identify them and needs time for their traits to completely develop and showcase.

Schizophrenia is one such disorder and schizophrenia treatment can only be done when the family member or the patient themselves identify the problems within and are able to communicate such signs and symptoms to a psychologist or a trained psychiatrist.

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that involves chemical changes and impaired development in the brain that causes the individual to be differently abled, mentally and emotionally. Ìt is a serious mental condition which causes the patients to have lack of clarity in thoughts, delusions, hallucinations and sometimes also have impaired motor skills.

Schizophrenic patients also have trouble leading normal lives as they have difficulty maintaining a normal social life and have somewhat reclusive behaviour which needs psychiatric intervention and management through treatment and therapy.

Schizophrenic treatment is done in many psychiatric facilities with trained psychiatrists and therapists who help patients by identifying their positive symptoms, analysing their condition and the stage they are at, diagnosing the problem and finding the most effective course of schizophrenia treatment for such patients. In most cases, these patients may require rehabilitation and continued care in a facility.

Diagnosing Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia can be hard to detect as most individuals who exhibit these symptoms often overlap with common teenage behaviour. In kids, these symptoms can be quite confusing as they can be similar to lazy, distracted student behaviour which can lead family and friends into believing that these kids are going through a ‘phase’.

In reality, the symptoms may actually correspond to schizophrenia and can only be identified by a psychiatrist after a thorough evaluation of their positive and negative traits and symptoms exhibited by the patient.

In general, schizophrenia can affect individuals even as an infant in the womb as many children can be born with this mental disorder. Some can contract this disorder over time or due to exposure to traumatic life incidents or exposure to chemicals or drugs over a continued period of time.

But mostly, this disorder is genetic and therefore, most patients are born with it. Symptoms can start appearing later in life as they start schooling and in their adolescent life. This is why early detection is difficult in this mental disorder.

Only when the patient displays identifiable and classified schizophrenic behavior, it can be difficult for anyone to diagnose this issue. It could go well into adolescence for kids and for adults, a few years into socially reclusive behavior can trigger suspicions in friends and family.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

For family and friends, it is important to note a few positive symptoms of schizophrenia that can help in the early detection of this disorder so that treatment can be started as early as possible:

● Hallucinations are the most common and the positive symptom of schizophrenia

● Delusions are present in the patient as they believe in unrealistic things

● Abnormal thoughts and processing thoughts in an odd manner

● Abnormal body movements such as twitching, agitation, and shaking