Psychopharmacological treatment of schizophrenia in child and adolescent population: state of the art

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe pathology that is characterized by the presence of delusions, hallucinations, negative symptoms, disorganization of thought and behavior. Although its prevalence in children under 13 years of age is very low, it increases substantially during the adolescence. When it develops before 18 years of age, it is called early-onset schizophrenia and represents 12-33 % of all individuals with this disorder. Drugs such as haloperidol, risperidone, paliperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, brexpiprazole, and lurasidone are Food and Drug Administration approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in adolescents. However, except for haloperidol, all pharmacological indications for this disorder in children under 13 years are off label. Although this practice it is not forbidden carries an additional risk. In the following article we will review the evidence of antipsychotics used for the treatment of schizophrenia in the pediatric population with the aim of synthesizing information with clinical applicability.