Childhood Schizophrenia a Bold Catastrophic Disease

Childhood schizophrenia is on the forefront of people’s minds, as 7 year old Jani Schofield has taken the hearts of Oprah viewers.

For one week, an Oprah associate producer stayed with the Schofield family to observe how a family coped with their daughter’s childhood schizophrenia.

Jani’s childhood schizophrenia requires her parents to make a lot of sacrifices. Since they fear that she may hurt her little brother Bodhi in a schizophrenic rage, the family sleeps in two separate apartments. Jani stays in an apartment set up like a psychiatric ward.

The good news is childhood schizophrenia is extremely rare. According to Dr. Judith Rapoport, the rate of childhood schizophrenia is 1/300th of 1 percent the rate of adults.

Kids with childhood schizophrenia hear voices and see things that other people can’t. Dr. Rapoport states that children with imaginary friends are not likely to have childhood schizophrenia. Kids with childhood schizophrenia are dark and paranoid.

Childhood schizophrenia robs children of their youth. Many of them can not attend school and quite a few of them know enough about their illness to know what it robs them of. Read more