Childhood Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is an illness that was named by Eugen Bleuler in 1908. Bleuler named the illness Schizophrenia because the illness is essentially the splitting of the mind that causes the mind to no longer function as a whole, with behavior, emotion, and reason working together. It does not mean there are multiple personalities, but rather multiple realities (FUSAR-POLI, PAOLO, and PIERLUIGI POLITI). Schizophrenia is one of the most difficult mental illnesses to understand because every culture has a different experience with how Schizophrenia works. Both genders are equally affected, all races are equally affected, and no matter the location of the occurrence all of the population is affected by having a 1% chance of getting Schizophrenia (Versola-Russo.)
Early onset schizophrenia occurs between the ages seven and thirteen and is very rare. Explanations of early onset schizophrenia have changed over time and is now seen to be an even more harmful version of the same disorder shown in adults (Childhood Schizophrenia - Symptoms and Causes). From all of the studies and information that scientists have access to, they believe that childhood schizophrenia develops the same way it would/will in adults. Genetics, brain chemistry, and environmental factors. The question is, how and why does it start earlier for some individuals and not others? Some studies suggest that children with developmental delays and speech and language problems are put at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia when they become adults (Rapoport). These symptoms are hard to recognize because most people will consider this a developmental phase for children, but it is really signs of something much more disturbing. Even though the causes of this mental disturbance are not certain, there are some factors that influence or rather trigger schizophrenia: older fathers, pregnancy and birth complications like malnutrition, exposure to toxins, or viruses that may impact brain development. (Mayo
In December 2007 another study showed that there was an increased risk for Schizophrenia again associated with influenza during pregnancy (Boska.) During the forty years, studies show that information of the infection (maternal recall, hospital records, and national registry records on influenza occurrences) have only one-half of the findings being affected. This lead to discoveries of increased rates of major affective disorder (bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression) that have been reported following exposure to the influenza outbreak during the second trimester showing that the effects are most likely not linked to schizophrenia (Boska.) There have been other maternal infections that have been associated with schizophrenia, like measles, rubella, varicella-zoster, and polio. There is a rubella study that shows that 20% of people exposed to rubella in the first trimester developed adult schizophrenia. It is to be believed that infections during pregnancy that have a variety of different effects and are chemically,