[Comptwin]

Both of my birth parents has paranoid schizophrenia. I am sure the odds were definately against me, but I turned out right becuase I had such loving adoptive parents.

I hope you choose the choice and give this child all the love it can.

[SeekingAnswers]

If someone had the magical foresight to predict each moment that you would experience, for having adopted this child, for better or for worse, would you be able to prepare for the pain? Would the expectation of each wonderful moment make them less magical? Are you looking for a 'Yes' or 'No' on this question, or are you just trying to confirm something that you feel in your heart? Be prepared for the best and the worst, if you choose to make this commitment. If you cannot provide a suitable environment for this child, then you should reconsider your decision to adopt.

-Mark

[Bewenched]

This might bring you some peace of mind. Tt wasn't until I was an adult that my mother confided that my natural father had schitzophrenia. I do not have it nor do any of my 3 children. I do have one son that is ADD, but her certainly doesn't go around thinking he can talk to animals as my bio father does.

[bobcat54]

Any thoughts on a sudden onset of cruelty to animals in a 4 yr old? I've had him since he was 6 months old and his father has intermittent phone contact with him and his mother basically doesn't have any contact (complicated situation, family placement while things drag on in CPS). I can't get in to see psychiatrist til march but I'm worried.

[rindava]

not have any pets in your house...

find a therapist your family can work with, most do tend to make you wait two weeks, but you should be able to get in somewhere...

Might want to look around for another Dr. as this one will always be very busy and hard to get access to, etc... unless you already know this Dr.

Also, school systems can help sometimes if your child has other behavior problems....

[mzsumthing]

I was just contacted 3 weeks ago by my state agency of a 2 years with same background. I was able to use services at workplace offered through company sponsored employee assistance program.

The medical professionals provided advice on what treatments would be required based on 'worst case' scenario which would require residency living. In addition, I was able to obtain legal advice from professionals familiar with state adoptions and subsidies. Which was never mentioned by case workers.

As part of the adoption agreement, I assured my son would be well care for life, should the illness surface in anytime through his life.

[Larry_Kilburn]

there is nothing to be afraid about that...
well i think you should adopt that child.
if everyone in this world would think of disease free child then what about such kind of child. you should set an example in the society but adopting such child.
such child need love, care taker, some warm love from you.
suppose something is happening to some part of our body, like some injury to our hand so do we cut our entire hand?
no.. we will not cut our hand we will cure our hand. similiarly child is our hand if it has some problem we must not abandoned it.

[tusu]

"Yes, there is about a 10% chance of a child developing schizophrenia if BOTH parents have it....the likelihood in the general population is about 1%. "

Sorry to disagree, it is a 10% risk if one parent has it, the risk is higher if both parents have it, and depending on how family research is done, the statistics for both parents are having it go from 20% to more than double that - one study that counted all psychiatric disorders in offspring (mild to severe) got surprisingly high results, but we have to remember that the result of both-parent studies do vary alot depending on how they design the study. All in alll I would say that both parents being schizophrenic increases the risk substantially, as does having multiple family members and/or severely affected family members.

But the illness really isn't that predictable. Even with identical sons, only about half the time, if one has it, will both get it. It used to be suggested this is because 'environment' was a factor, now it's being found out that nerve cells may duplicate or split incorrectly while the fetus is growing, causing 'CNV's' (gene abnormalities) that come from neither parent and are unique to that individual.

In the people I know, often I will see several mentally ill siblings with NEITHER parent having schizophrenia. For example, my one friend - he is schizophrenic, his sister is schizoaffective, his brother has depression and psychosis. Neither parent has it.

This statistic given in many cases isn't occurence at all, but actually is 'lifetime adjusted risk', which is really a statistic, and doesn't say for sure that any one individual gets it, it is just a percentage for a large group of people overall.

Too, studies that measure 'family loading' often get higher results for 'one parent' than 10%. 'Family loading' involves counting all the schizophrenic members known in the family, even back several generations if available (countries like I believe Sweden have had a registry for years so they have better records than other countries).

[DPline]

Please note that this thread was started in 2000. The origional post is over 10 years old.