Psychotic Symptoms in Children and Adolescents: Assessment, Differential Diagnosis, and Treatment

Psychotic symptoms have traditionally been rationalized and disregarded as products of the child's imagination. There has been a professional reluctance to acknowledge that children could suffer from severe psychotic disorders akin to adult subjects, and that these symptoms merit a comprehensive and systematic evaluation. Now, the area of child and adolescent psychoses is gaining progressive recognition and interest, and has stimulated a keen interest in the examination and detection of psychotic symptoms for diagnostic, treatment and prognostic purposes of a variety of psychiatric disorders of children and adolescents. The purpose of this book is to demystify the interviewing diagnostic process of psychosis in children and adolescents, and to provide a resource for treatment. The book will contain a guide to the interviewing process as well as a review of differential diagnosis, followed by an overview on psychosocial interventions. The latter half will deal with the use of antipsychoticdrugs, beginning with issues related to their use in the field, followed by a review of literature on the subject, atypical side effects, and implementation throughout treatment. This book will fill a vacuum in the field of child and adolescent psychosis, and will have a broad appeal and interest to general psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, to child and adolescent psychiatrists, and many other mental health professionals working with disturbed children and adolescents.