Childhood-onset schizophrenia

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Childhood-onset schizophrenia

ORPHA:641496Disease

Also called COS · VEOS · Very early-onset schizophrenia

What it is

A rare neurologic disease with psychiatric involvement characterized by prominent pre-psychotic developmental disabilities (cognitive, language, motor), socio-communicative disturbances, auditory hallucinations (visual and tactile hallucinations are rarer) preceding psychotic symptoms, presenting before 13 years of age. Co-occurrence of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is frequent. Disease course is more severe than adult-onset form of the disease, with major neurodevelopmental impact.

Key facts

Prevalence
1-5 / 10 000 (annual incidence, Europe)
Age of onset
Adolescent, Childhood
Inheritance
Multigenic/multifactorial
Classified as
Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

F20.0ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.1ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.2ICD-10 uses a narrower term — shared with 1 other rare disease
F20.3ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.4ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.5ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.6ICD-10 uses a narrower term
F20.8ICD-10 uses a narrower term

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Benefit programs to look at

Programs whose eligibility touches the same ICD-10 categories. Eligibility is decided by the administering agency, never by this page.

Cross-references

MESH D012561MONDO 0957430UMLS C0036346

Orphadata Science: Free access data from Orphanet. © INSERM 1999. Data version 2026-06-23. Available under CC BY 4.0. This is a reference, not medical advice.

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