TEENAGE PSYCHOSES—EPIDEMIOLOGY, CLASSIFICATION AND REDUCED OPTIMALITY IN THE PRE‐, PERI‐AND NEONATAL PERIODS

Abstract

This is a population‐based survey from Göteborg, Sweden, of all youngsters treated as in‐patients for operationally defined ‘psychotic disorders’ during their teens. It was shown that 0.54% of all teenagers in Göteborg had been treated for such disorders at least once during the 13‐to 19‐year‐old age period. Boys and girls were about equally affected, but schizophreniform disorders tended to be much more common among the boys and affective disorders more common among the girls. Child psychiatric services had been consulted much less frequently than adult ones, in spite of the many developmental aspects of the psychotic disorders. Scores for reduced optimality in the pre‐and perinatal periods were marginally, though significantly, more common in the psychosis groups than in an age‐, sex‐and maternity clinic‐matched control group.