The Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School encourages a wide array of supports that could help reduce the likelihood of developing schizophrenia in children at high familial risk, according to the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. The article, written by Cindy Liu, Ph.D., and colleagues, says that often children born to parents with schizophrenia exhibit subtle but visible signs that can predict later development of psychoses. The signs can include neuromotor problems, minor physical anomalies, cognitive difficulties, antisocial behavior, and problems with speech, language, or hearing.

Of course, these things are not determinative. Many things, including childhood adversity and life stress also may contribute to risk. Still, focusing on high-familial-risk children “may be the most practical strategy for early intervention at this time,” Liu concludes, recommending interventions that might include enhancing parental skills, increasing social support, applying psychotherapy for parents, prenatal care for women with psychoses, and ensuring access to important psychiatric, social, educational, and legal resources.

More research is needed to know which interventions are most effective in terms of function and cost.

Related articles

• Too much TV, poor grades, loneliness may bring on Alzheimer’s, study finds (newsday.com)
• First-episode psychosis gets early intervention under Michigan pilot program (mlive.com)
• Brain Training iPad Game Helps Improve Life Of Schizophrenia Patients (techtimes.com)
• Researchers resurrect ancient viruses in hopes of improving gene therapy (eurekalert.org)
• Smoking cigarettes is associated with an increased risk of psychosis (myscienceacademy.org)
• Summer Listening From The Checkup: High Anxiety, Revisited (commonhealth.wbur.org)
• Do You Have an Addictive Personality? (webmd.com)