Davidoff-Dyke-Masson syndrome presenting as childhood schizophrenia.
Always scan the brain and check vitamins before you call it childhood schizophrenia.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors wrote up one boy who acted like he had childhood schizophrenia.
The child talked to himself and saw things that were not there.
Brain scans later showed Davidoff-Dyke-Masson syndrome, a rare congenital malformation.
What they found
The boy got talk therapy first, but it helped little.
Only after the scan did teams stop blaming family stress.
The case warns: look at the brain before you call it childhood schizophrenia.
How this fits with other research
Gillberg (1980) tells the same story. A child looked psychotic, but mycoplasma encephalitis was the real cause.
Malhotra et al. (2013) and Moretti et al. (2008) repeat the theme. Vitamin B12 or folate deficiency can copy autism or psychosis.
Weissman-Fogel et al. (2015) flips the warning. They show teens with ASD who were wrongly called psychotic. All papers shout the same rule: rule the body out first.
Why it matters
If you assess a child for psychosis, add a quick neuro screen. Ask for B12, folate, MRI, or EEG before you sign off on talk therapy alone. One scan or lab draw can spare years of wrong labels and meds.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The problem of differential diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia versus gross brain pathology is a difficult one. The clinical picture, for instance, of dementia infantalis (Heller's Disease) is indistinguishable from that of schizophrenia (Shaw & Lucas, 1970). The same is true of some major metabolic disorders (Bray,1970). Coexisting neurological and EEG findings for seizures are not helpful since these are often seen in schizophrenia (Bender, 1947; Fish, 1977). Mental retardation may coexist with schizophrenia or any of the other disorders. The following is an unusual case illustration of a child presenting symptoms of schizophrenia, seizures, and retardation without neurological abnormalities. Until his gross anatomical brain pathology was found by neurologic evaluation, he was subjected to the inappropriate treatment of psychotherapy.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1979 · doi:10.1007/BF01531290