Childhood antecedents of psychotic disorders. Diagnostic specificity and association with age at onset

The aims were to assess the diagnostic specificity of childhood antecedents in psychotic disorders, and the associations between childhood antecedents and age at onset, Childhood developmental and behavioral characteristics w ere retrospectively assessed using parental interview in a population-based sample of first-admitted subjects with psychosis. Subjects with schizophre nia broadly defined had more frequently a history of sleep or elimination d isturbances, of social withdrawal and of separation anxiety than subjects w ith other psychotic disorders. Although no significant association was foun d between age at onset and childhood antecedents after adjustment for diagn osis, a pattern characterised by inhibition and withdrawal was commoner in subjects with early-onset psychotic disorders, while subjects with later on set had mor-e frequently a history of externalized behavioral disturbances.