When Do Positive and Negative Symptoms Begin to Emerge?
By:
THEODORE MILLON and
Seth Grossman
Carrie Millon
Sarah Meagher
Rowena Ramnath
Researchers
have traditionally divided the symptoms of the schizophrenic syndromes into two
types.
First
are the positive symptoms, mainly perceptual-cognitive in nature, which
represent a surplus or exaggeration of normal functioning. These include
suspiciousness, ideas of reference, odd beliefs, magical thinking, unusual
perceptual experiences, and circumstantial and tangential speech.
Second
are the negative symptoms, mainly social-interpersonal in nature, which
represent deficits in normal functioning. These include constricted or
inappropriate affect, speech problems (i.e., poverty of speech, stilted
speech), social indifference, social isolation, flatness of emotion, and odd
behavior or appearance.
Because
some children show schizoid-like behavior from early childhood, there has been
some interest in determining if early behavioral manifestations of either the
positive or negative symptoms might develop into full-fledged disorders later
in life.
S.
Olin et al. (1997) studied teachers’ ratings of adolescents who were
subsequently diagnosed as schizotypal personalities and compared them with
several groups, including a group of normal adolescents whose parents were both
normal. They found that childhood analogs of adult schizotypal symptoms were
evident as early as late childhood and early adolescence.
When
compared with children who later became healthy adults, children who later were
diagnosed as schizotypal were more passive, more socially unengaged, more
sensitive to criticism, and reacted more nervously. However, they were not
rated as more anxious by their teachers.
The
preschizotypal children differed from children who later became schizophrenic,
who were more disruptive and hyper-excitable.
The
results support a continuity of the negative symptoms from late childhood on
into adulthood.
Unfortunately,
no studies have yet addressed the positive symptoms of the schizotypal personality.
Because it is developmentally normal for young children to believe in magic and
to make attributions accordingly (Rosengren, Kalish, Hickling, & Gelman,
1994; Vikan & Clausen, 1993), it would be instructive to look at the
development of these symptoms in schizotypal children.
Perhaps
a reluctance or inability to relinquish early magical thinking, which is
developmentally normal and generally manifested by all children, may doom a
child to some serious psychopathology later in life.
References
Personality Disorders in Modern Life,
second edition, 2000, 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Read Also
Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Case vignette (1)
Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Case vignette (2)
Schizotypal Personality
Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Case vignette (2)
Schizotypal Personality
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