Childhood behavioral precursors of adult symptom dimensions in schizophrenia

The present investigation tested the hypothesis that childhood behavioral problems are differentially associated with clinical symptoms in adult-onset schizophrenia. Parents of 29 schizophrenic patients completed questionnaires concerning (1) the childhood behaviors of all their offspring from birth through 15 years of age, and (2) the symptomatology of their schizophrenic offspring. The childhood behavior scale was a modified version of Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (1991). Scores were derived for six childhood behavior problem factors: Withdrawal, Anxiety/Depression, Social Problems, Thought Problems, Attention Problems, and Aggression/Delinquency. Ratings of symptoms were based on parental versions of Andreasen's Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS; 1983) and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS; 1981). Symptomatology scores were computed from the SANS and SAPS following Malla et al.'s (1993) and Liddle's (1987b) tri-dimensional concept of schizophrenia: Reality Distortion, Psychomotor Poverty and Cognitive Disorganization. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between childhood behavior and adult symptomatology in the schizophrenic patients. The results indicated that the Psychomotor Poverty and Cognitive Disorganization dimensions in adult patients are positively associated with Withdrawn behavior and inversely associated with Anxious/Depressed characteristics in childhood. The results are discussed in light of the distinction between primary and secondary negative symptoms, and the three dimension concept of schizophrenia.