Motor Symptoms as a Prodrome to Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia occurs in 1% of the population and is severely impairing to those afflicted. Thereby, it is of the utmost importance to recognize and treat the disorder as early as possible. For the last several decades research has attempted to elucidate a variety of predictive factors in order to aid in the identification of patients at high risk of developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. These factors have included premorbid or prodromal movement symptoms. The literature has identified motor aberrations beginning early in life, in some cases even in infancy, ranging from neonatal hypotonicity to facial and upper body dyskinesia. These motor symptoms have not only been demonstrated to aid in predicting conversion to schizophrenia but carry prognostic importance for other outcomes as well. We present the case of a 34-year-old male who developed abnormal motor symptoms several years prior to the onset of psychosis. Our case builds upon the current body of literature by demonstrating the importance of spontaneous dyskinesia in the evaluation of populations at high risk for the development of a schizophrenia spectrum illnesses.

Keywords

• early-onset
• prodrome
• schizophrenia
• psychotic illness
• movement disorder
• motor symptoms
• dyskinesia