title: Developmental Coordination Disorder Plus Oculomotor and Visuospatial Impairment as Neurodevelopmental Heralds of Psychosis Proneness.
abstract: Aiming at preventing transitions to more severe psychopathology and boosted by the availability of operational criteria to identify help-seeking subjects at increased risk for psychosis, research into the early prodromal phases of psychosis is attracting a growing clinical interest. Furthermore, the focus of early detection is gradually shifting from prodromal syndromes to the premorbid period. Although mainly driven by clinical-pragatic aims, such a shift is coherent with the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia that might offer a unifying, developmentally informed conceptual framework for early detection. Psychotic experiences, indeed, while overtly manifested in adolescence/early-adulthood, are often antedated by subtle expressions of biological vulnerability already presenting in the early years of life and indexing a putatively altered neurodevelopmental process. Concretely, unspecific premorbid symptoms that may be present since infancy and childhood may lead to early clinical consultancy in child-adolescent mental health services, which could be considered the primary clinical setting to implement early detection. We herewith present a clinical vignette of a child with severe Developmental Coordination Disorder presenting an Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome. The vignette illustrates the intertwining between possible early neurodevelopmental disorders and clinical psychosis proneness in childhood.
authors.affiliation: 1. Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addiction, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Azienda Sanitaria Locale of Reggio Emilia, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poletti
authors.affiliation: 2. Cmed Polyspecialistic Diagnostic and Therapeutic Centre, Rome.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gebhardt
authors.affiliation: 3. Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, and Diakonjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway (Dr. Andrea Raballo).
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raballo
keywords: Neurodevelopmental hypothesis; attenuated psychosis syndrome; childhood premorbid phenotype; psychosis proneness; schizophrenia