Shari Roan’s article entitled “Jani’s at the mercy of her mind” illustrates the difficulties encountered by children with schizophrenia and their families. For those who do not know about schizophrenia in children, this journalistic case study will be a good introduction.
It’s been a rough week. A few days ago, at UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, 6-year-old Jani toppled a food cart and was confined to her room. She slammed her head against the floor, opening a bloody cut that sent her into hysterics. Later, she kicked the hospital therapy dog.
Jani normally likes animals. But most of her animal friends — cats, rats, dogs and birds — are phantoms that only she can see. January Schofield has schizophrenia. Potent psychiatric drugs — in doses that would stagger most adults — seem to skip off her. She is among the rarest of the rare: a child seemingly born mentally ill.
Here’s a video segment (7:45) from the story; it’s by Don Kelsen and Tim French.
Link to Ms. Roan’s article. For other resources about childhood schizophrenia, see these links:
- The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Facts for Families page about schizophrenia.
- The recruitment page for the US National Institute of Mental Health’s “Childhood-onset Schizophrenia Study.”
- The Merck Manuals’ entry about childhood schizophrenia.
- The NARSAD page about childhood-onset schizophrenia.
- The North American Society for Childhood Onset Schizophrenia (Web site).
- Mayo Clinic definition.
- The US National Alliance for Mental Illness’s (NAMI) fact sheet about early-onset schizophrenia.
- Pam Belluck’s excellent article, “Living With Love, Chaos and Haley” from the New York Times (22 Oct 2006).
- Living with Childhood-onset Schizophrenia (Web site)
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