Attention, Memory, and Motor Skills as Childhood Predictors of Schizophrenia-Related Psychoses: The New York High-Risk Project

Abstract

Schizophrenia-related psychoses in adulthood are distinguished in subjects at risk for schizophrenia by childhood deficits in verbal memory, gross motor skills, and attention. The findings suggest that deficits in these variables are relatively specific to schizophrenia risk and may be indicators of the genetic liability to schizophrenia.

The persistence of developmental markers in childhood and adolescence and risk for schizophrenic psychoses in adult life. A 34-year follow-up of the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort

“…The earliest developmental research of risk markers involved the follow-up of high-risk samples, and most studies showing some persistence of risk markers are high-risk studies (Watt, 1978;Marcus et al, 1993;Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 2000). Our results support the hypothesis that in an unselected sample the persistence of developmental delay is independent of known genetic risk of psychoses.…”

“…Some evidence of persistence in deviant neuromotor development in high-risk infants has been reported 6 in motor skills (Mednick and Schulsinger, 1974), or having high frequencies of soft neurological signs (motor coordination and left-right orientation) during infancy and school age (Marcus et al, 1993). In the New York High-Risk Project, longitudinal stability and persistence was seen in verbal memory, gross motor function and attention (Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 2000). However, some studies show normal neurological development in high-risk infants (reviewed by Marcuse and Cornblatt 1986).…”

Advances in endophenotyping schizophrenia

“…Working memory is also deficient among first-degree relatives of schizophrenia probands, as detected with both verbal (80) and spatial tasks (81). The New York High Risk Study reported that childhood scores on a verbal working memory factor successfully predicted later schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses among offspring of schizophrenia mothers, further supporting its relevance as an endophenotype for schizophrenia (82).…”

Manifestações precoces dos transtornos do comportamento na criança e no adolescente

“…71 Attention deficit, abnormal gross motor skills, problems with verbal memory, late walking, and tendency to play alone have been regarded as possible indicators of schizophrenia. 2,3 Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa)…”

“…1 Some psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are noticed before their most evident symptoms through changes in behavior and development during childhood or adolescence. 2,3 The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition text revision) presents more than 250 conditions that may co-occur with behavioral disorders. 4 The detection of the first symptoms of behavioral disorders allows the referral of patients to different p r o f e s s i o n a l s , w h e n e v e r n e c e s s a r y , f o r e a r l y interventions that could change the course of the disease.…”