Abstract
<p>Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare pervasive developmental disorder, which is often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, probably due to the resultant severe social impairment and withdrawn behaviour with stereotypys that could be mistaken for psychosis. We report a case of CDD that was misdiagnosed by a psychiatrist as childhood-onset schizophrenia and treated with high doses of antipsychotics. The patient did not show any improvement. This highlights ethical issues that arise from treatment modalities, with polypharmacy being the biggest culprit, and also points to the need to continue medical education at the level of primary health services and among practising rural doctors where tertiary centres with child guidance facilities and a multidisciplinary team are not available.</p>
Highlights
Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) which is characterised by a marked regression in multiple areas of development after 2 years of normal development and before 10 years of age
There is only one reported case of CDD misdiagnosed as schizo phrenia,[2] and misattributed diagnoses of psychosis in PDD have been described by Dossetor.[3]
We report a case of misdiagnosis in a child with CDD, who was receiving very high doses of antipsychotics
Summary
Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare pervasive developmental disorder, which is often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, probably due to the resultant severe social impairment and withdrawn behaviour with stereotypys that could be mistaken for psychosis. Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) which is characterised by a marked regression in multiple areas of development after 2 years of normal development and before 10 years of age. Its prevalence is around 1 per 100 000 children.[1] There is only one reported case of CDD misdiagnosed as schizo phrenia,[2] and misattributed diagnoses of psychosis in PDD have been described by Dossetor.[3] We report a case of misdiagnosis in a child with CDD, who was receiving very high doses of antipsychotics
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