SCHIZOPHRENIA AND PSYCHOSIS, AND LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Schizophrenia and Psychosis, and Lifespan Development



Schizophrenia and Psychosis, and Lifespan Development

The onset and first diagnosis of many disorders are developmentally and age specific. The DSM-IV-TR categorizes disorders that are usually first diagnosed during infancy, childhood, and adolescence under Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence and disorders that are usually first diagnosed during later adulthood under Delirium, Dementia, and Amnestic and Other Cognitive Disorders (BehaveNet clinical capsule, 1996-2010). Even though many of these disorders can be seen at all stages of life, the prevalence of these disorders during certain developmental periods is more likely (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Of the four developmental stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and later adulthood one disorder from each category—rumination disorder, Asperger's disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and dementia of the Alzheimer's type, respectively—will be dissected into its subsidiary biological, emotions, cognitive, and behavioral components.

Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence

The normal criteria for defining and recognizing adult psychopathology include help seeking, irrational or dangerous behavior, deviant behavior, emotional distress, and significant impairment in functioning (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Nevertheless, these criteria do not always characterize disorders that begin during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. For one, help seeking is not practical for infants, since they don't usually understand the problem let alone that they need to seek help to fix the problem. Also, there is no clear line where fantasy ends and delusion begins with children. The antidote to the shortfalls of applying the criteria for defining adult psychopathology to the early developmental stages is to narrow the definition of abnormality to behaviors that interfere or disrupt progressive development. In this context, abnormal behavior—such as rumination disorder, Asperger's disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder—can be seen as any type of developmental impairment.

Rumination Disorder (RD)

From a biological perspective RD entails, “…activities to induce vomiting, such as inserting fingers into their mouth or throat, or by making rhythmic chest, neck, or tongue movements to produce emesis” (Burns, Cotter & Lavigne, 1981, p. 2). Furthermore, the DSM-IV-TR clarifies that RD constitutes, “Repeated regurgitation and rechewing of food for a period of at least 1 month following a period of normal functioning (BehaveNet clinical capsule, 1996-2010, n.p.).

Asperger's Disorder (AD)

AD is primarily a, “…lack of social or emotional reciprocity…marked by impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expressions, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction” (BehaveNet clinical capsule, 1996-2010, ...