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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2013 Jun 18;22(4):539–555. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2013.04.001

Table 4.

Differential Diagnoses of Childhood-onset schizophrenia

Medical Etiologies

  • Seizure Disorder

  • Anti-NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) receptor encephalitis

  • Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE)

  • Lysosomal storage diseases

  • Neurodegenerative disorders

  • Central nervous system (CNS) tumors

  • Progressive organic CNS disorder (e.g., sclerosing panencephalitis)

  • Metabolic Disorders

  • Chromosomal disorders: 22q11 deletion syndromeˆ
Misdiagnosed Psychiatric Illnesses

  • Psychotic Depression

  • Bipolar Disorder

  • Autism-Spectrum Disorders Pervasive Developmental Disorders

  • Obsessive–compulsive Disorder (OCD)

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

  • “Multidimensionally impaired” (not a formal DSM diagnosis, but discussed further below) – individuals with multiple language or learning disorders, mood lability, and transient psychotic symptoms
ˆ

rates significantly higher than expected [31-33]