Thought Disorder in Children at Risk for Psychosis
- 1 October 1985
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of General Psychiatry
- Vol. 42 (10), 1004-1013
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1985.01790330084010
Abstract
• The Thought Disorder Index, which has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure of the degree of thought disorder in adult psychotic patients, was used to assess thought disorder in children. Normal children aged 5 to 16 years, hospitalized psychotic children, children hospitalized for nonpsychotic behavioral problems, and children born to a psychotic mother (high-risk) were tested. In the normal sample, thought disorder decreases with age. The level of thought disorder in psychotic children and high-risk children was about three times higher than that of the normal children, whereas the level of thought disorder of the nonpsychotic hospitalized children was no different from that of the normal children. The study also detected differences in the kinds of thought disorder that characterize the psychotic and high-risk groups vs the other children. The presence of thought disorder may be thought of as a useful indicator of the diathesis for functional psychosis. The Thought Disorder Index merits selection as a tool for investigating thought disorder as a potential precursor variable in studies of children at risk for schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness.This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Behavioral Precursors of Schizophrenia SpectrumArchives of General Psychiatry, 1982
- Verbal associative disturbances in children at high risk for schizophrenia.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1980
- Thought disorder in schizophrenics and normal controls: Social class and race differences.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1979
- Rorschach Indices of Disordered Thinking in Patient and Nonpatient Adolescents and AdultsJournal of Personality Assessment, 1978
- Neurobiologic Antecedents of Schizophrenia in ChildrenArchives of General Psychiatry, 1977
- Overinclusive Thinking in Mania and SchizophreniaThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1974
- The Language of SchizophreniaThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1972
- Diagnostic Criteria for Use in Psychiatric ResearchArchives of General Psychiatry, 1972
- Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia.American Psychologist, 1962
- 6. Principal Factors Determining Intellectual Evolution from Childhood to Adult LifePublished by Columbia University Press ,1951