Paediatric psychosis: Diagnosis, developmental trajectories, causes and treatment

The term Psychosis refers to an abnormal condition of the mind that is characterized by disruptions in thinking and is accompanied by delusions and hallucinations. The purpose of the current chapter is to review the up to date state of empirical literature on Pediatric Psychosis as well as identify areas for future direction of research on an understudied disorder that is cumbersome to diagnose, differentiate and treat. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the diagnostic and associated features of the disorder and the factors implicated in making the diagnosis elusive and at times inaccurate. It continues with the differential diagnoses that are often implicated in the misdiagnosis of psychotic symptomatology. The next section covers the sparse epidemiological data on the prevalence followed by the factors implicated in the aetiology of the disorder. The developmental considerations of the disorder are covered next. The final section reports on the evidence-based status of the treatment approaches for Paediatric Psychosis and identifies future directions of research.