[aimeelynn818]

I don't post often but read daily. I hope someone out there can provide some insight.

We are looking into the adoption of a 5 yr old who was born to a schizophrenic mom---the severity is not known at this time. The child has resided with the grandmother from birth, but g-mom is not healthy and wishes to find a home for her granddaughter before she gets too ill.

The bmom also has a drug history and all rights were terminated at birth.

Bmom is pregnant with child #2 and might be an opportunity for us as well. We aren't sure of her current drug use but are awaiting the reports.

Opinions? Data on schizophrenia and genetic tendencies?

Thanks for any insight. You all are wonderful in your help with these issues!!

Aimee

[icunurse]

A handout I was given at a conference that I attended says that having one parent diagnosed as schizophrenic makes the child 18.5 times more likely to develop the trait vs someone without any family history. It also says that with a first degree relative (parent or sibling) diagnosed, the chance of a child/sibling having it is 10-12%. (In case anyone wants to know, chances with a second degree relative -grandparent, aunt, uncle- is 5-6%; two schizophrenic parents is 40%; general population is 1% Risk increases with greater number of ill relatives or if it is present on both mother's and father's side. Maybe check out some websites:
www.nami.org
www.cmhc.com
www.aacap.org

I hope ths helps a bit. It's scary when all you can focus on is "worst case scenario". Good luck.

[pinkdreamin]

I was in your situation 2 years ago. icunurse is correct - great info. Do a google search. What I found is that it usually shows up in boys in their teens (when we all think is it being a teenager) and in girls it can wait until their 30's before it shows up. We chose not in our situation as both pbm and pbf were schizophrenic and she was adopted with no family history. Good luck in your research.

[Big Dreamer]

Hi... though it usually isn't diagnosed until after age 12 a child can show tendencies at a young age.

We considered adopting a 4 year old whose bfather was Schizophrenic and struggled with depression. This 4 year old showed many signs of possible Schizophrenia and severe depression.

We had the little girl with us for a month, while observing her in her home I noticed some things that seemed out of sorts for a child her age.

To see if her issues were environment related we brought her to stay with us for a month. M would have horrible meltdowns at the drop of a hat with kicking, biting, screaming and scratching at home, the park in the car, she was often fighting people and voices that weren’t there.

Medical testing proved that psychologically she was on a 15-month-old child’s level and she had delayed verbal and motor skills.

After two weeks I realized that we were not cut out to parent a child with these types of problems. Star was due in a couple of months and I knew that I would not be able to give M the type of attention and care that she needed while tending to a newborn. Though it broke my heart I knew that we could not keep her.

She eventually went to a home with a Dr and they planned for her to be an only child.

If it is possible try to get FULL copies of the childs past medical records. M’s records came a couple months after she left our home and we were shocked to see that so many doctors had recommended inpatient treatment or a living facility.

We were never told about her meltdowns and other behaviors, lucky for me I was studying to be a psychologist so I had a pretty good idea how to handle some of the behavior.

When she came to stay with us we treated it as a vacation and a way to get to know each other.

My husband was crushed because he really thought things were going to work out. When they didn’t he had a great sense of failure and loss because he couldn’t fix her, at the same time he could look at me and see bruises on my face, neck and body where M would grab me during one of her melt downs and would beat me up while crying for help from whatever she was dealing with in her mind.

It was a very sad situation for everyone. Please do your homework…

Maria

[Shoshana]

Just wanted to correct some information given earlier - the age of onset for both males and females is late teens or young adulthood. There are signs in childhood/adolescence for those with the worst forms of this illness. Those signs are fine motor deficits, neurointegrative/information processing deficits, and/or social withdrawal. The medication has improved greatly since the 1950's and many people are able to function quite well.

As icunurse mentioned, an 18% increased risk does not guarantee that the child will develop the disorder. The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown although it appears there is a genetic (not 100%) contribution. Even if a child has the diathesis (predisposition) it is not a certainty that the disease will be expressed.

Best wishes to you...


Best wishes in making your decisions.