Early onset Schizophrenia

Assignment: Early Onset Schizophrenia

Children and adolescents with schizophrenia have more difficulty functioning in academic or work settings, and significant impairment usually persists into adulthood. They may have speech or language disorders and in some cases borderline intellectual functioning. These individuals are more likely to complete suicide attempts or die from other accidental causes. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and behavior disturbance. Negative symptoms include blunted affect and attention, apathy, and lack of motivation and social interest.

In this Assignment, you compare treatment plans for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia with treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia. You also consider the legal and ethical issues involved in medicating children diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Compare      evidence-based treatment plans for adults versus children and adolescents      diagnosed with schizophrenia


• Analyze legal      and ethical issues surrounding the forceful administration of medication      to children diagnosed with schizophrenia


• Analyze the role      of the PMHNP in addressing issues related to the forceful administration      of medication to children diagnosed with schizophrenia

To Prepare for this Assignment:

• Review the      Learning Resources concerning early-onset schizophrenia.

The Assignment (2 pages):

• Compare at least      two evidence-based treatment plans for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia      with evidence-based treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed      with schizophrenia.


• Explain the      legal and ethical issues involved with forcing children diagnosed with      schizophrenia to take medication for the disorder and how a PMHNP may      address those issues.  

Note: The School of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references.

Required Readings ( Need 3 references).

American Nurses Association. (2014). Psychiatric-mental health nursing: Scope and standards of practice (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

· Standard 10 “Quality of Practice” (pages 73-74)

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

· “Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders”

Giles, L. L., & Martini, D. R. (2016). Challenges and promises of pediatric psychopharmacology. Academic Pediatrics, 16(6), 508-518. doi:10.1016/j.acap.2016.03.011

Hargrave, T. M., & Arthur, M. E. (2015). Teaching child psychiatric assessment skills: Using pediatric mental health screening tools. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 50(1), 60-72.

McClellan, J., & Stock, S. (2013). Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with schizophrenia. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(9), 976–990. Retrieved from http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567(13)00112-3/pdf

Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

· Chapter 31, “Child Psychiatry” (pp. 1268–1283)

Stahl, S. M. (2014). Prescriber’s Guide: Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology (5th ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.