The primary purpose of the study is to describe the daily functioning difficulties in children and young people with early-onset schizophrenia or other non-affective psychosis (i.e. neither mania nor depression with psychotic symptoms), and to identify the most important correlations between the daily functioning level and the severity of the social cognitive functions (e.g. empathy), neurocognitive functions (e.g. concentration and memory) and psychopathological problems (e.g. hallucinations). D-BUP has been established in continuation of the research project "Disorders of the attention function and the ability to sort sensory impressions in children and young people with psychosis or ADHD" (the Attention project). Compared to the Attention project, D-BUP has more studies of social cognitive functions, which are probably more closely related to the daily level of functioning than the neurocognitive functions.
Need for a greater knowledge base for children and young people with non-affective psychoses
Identification of the cognitive disturbances that are most strongly associated with a reduced ability to adapt to the demands and expectations of everyday life is important for the development of medical and psychological treatments such as cognitive training programs that aim to improve the daily functioning level of the patient group. In addition to medical treatment, cognitive training is recommended for schizophrenia, but the relationships between cognitive functions and the daily level of functioning have not been well studied in children and young people with schizophrenia. In addition, it is important to identify both social cognitive, neurocognitive and psychophysiological disturbances as well as the symptom patterns which in childhood and adolescence predict a later onset of schizophrenia in the subgroup of children and adolescents with another non-affective psychosis. Therefore, a registry-based follow-up study of this group of children and young people is planned.
A project with a focus on improving treatment
The project concerns the condition in which the patients find themselves and is expected to produce results which, in the long run, can improve the treatment of precisely the cognitive functional difficulties which are most connected to the daily level of functioning in this age group. The test subjects and parents/guardians have been given the opportunity to obtain information about new essential health information about the child/young person, if such came to light in the investigations. It has also been an advantage for some patients that the information collected in the research project has been able to contribute to the examination/treatment planning in the clinical department.