title: Identifying schizophrenia in adolescents.
abstract: This article reviews the nature of the functioning impairments that constitute schizophrenic disorder and provides specific guidelines for identifying these impairments in clinical evaluations. Attention is paid to certain distinctive profiles of impairment in adolescent as opposed to adult schizophrenics and to differential diagnosis between emerging schizophrenia and other conditions with which it may share some symptoms. Illustrations are provided of aspects of the interview behavior and clinical history of young people that provide clues to such characteristics of schizophrenia as disordered thinking, inaccurate perception of reality, interpersonal ineptness, and inadequate control over ideas, affects, and behavior.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010465:Perception; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013060:Speech; D013850:Thinking