Premorbid speech and language impairments in childhood-onset schizophrenia: Association with risk factors

impairments. Results: Over one-half of the patients in this group had developmental dysfunc- tion in each domain assessed. The pa- tients with premorbid speech and lan- guage impairments had higher familial loading scores for schizophrenia spec- trum disorders and more obstetrical complications, and their relatives had worse smooth-pursuit eye movements. The boys had more premorbid motor abnormalities, but early language and social impairments did not differ signifi- cantly between genders. There were no other significant relationships between premorbid social or motor abnormali- ties and the risk factors assessed here. Conclusions: Premorbid developmen- tal impairments are common in child- hood-onset schizophrenia. The rates of three risk factors for schizophrenia (fa- milial loading for schizophrenia spec- trum disorders, familial eye-tracking dys- function, and obstetrical complications) were increased for the probands with premorbid speech and language impair- ments, suggesting that the pathophysiol- ogy of schizophrenia involves the abnor- mal development of language-related brain regions.