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

Psychotic Symptoms in Children and Adolescents demystifies the interviewing diagnostic process of psychosis in children and adolescents and provides a valuable resource for 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. This book offers a useful guide to the interviewing process, a review of differential diagnosis, and an overview on psychosocial interventions. It deals also with the use of antipsychotic drugs, 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. The book fills 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.