Childhood and adolescent psychosis: A review of the past 10 years

Objective: Developmental aspects of psychosis are reviewed and related to the more frequent psychotic conditions in children and adolescents. Method: The review of the recent literature focuses on developmental aspects of psychotic phenomena, i.e., hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder. Results: While the applicability of much early work on this topic is limited, more recent work suggests that psychotic conditions are observed in childhood and increase in frequency during adolescence. Conclusions: Developmental factors in the expression of psychosis are relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of such conditions.