‘Schizoid’ Personality in Childhood and Adult Life II: Adult Adjustment and the Continuity with Schizotypal Personality Disorder

In a controlled follow-up study into adulthood of 32 children diagnosed 'schizoid', three-quarters fulfilled DSM-III criteria for schizotypal personality disorder and two developed schizophrenia. Overall their psychosocial adjustment was somewhat, but not markedly, worse than that of other attenders at a child psychiatry clinic, although as a group they remained more solitary, lacking in empathy, oversensitive, with odd styles of communicating, and often with circumscribed interests.