Criteria for Identifying Youth at High Risk for Psychosis Called Into Question

Sixteen percent of youth under age 18 identified at risk for schizophrenia based on criteria for “at-risk mental state” (ARMS) converted to psychosis within five years, according to ameta-analysis in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. This rate is considerably lower than the rate reported for individuals over 18.“Our findings indicate a need for caution in applying ARMS methodology to children and adolescents and highlight the need for developmentally sensitive approaches when considering psychosis risk,” wrote senior author Ian Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and coll eagues.In the past two decades, there has been increasing emphasis on early identification and treatment of young people at risk for schizophrenia and the development of instruments to assess this risk.Kelleher and colleagues analyzed data from 16 articles based on nine studies reporting psychosis transition rates for 436 youth with ARMS aged 9 to 18 years. Youth were classified as high risk using the Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States, the Structured Interview for Psychosis Risk Syndromes, the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument —Child and Youth version, and/or the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms.The authors focused on the proportion of youth who went on to develop psychosis after one, two, and five or more years after designation as high risk. They found the pooled transition rate to psychosis at on...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: adults early identification Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry prevention psychosis schizophrenia transition rates youth Source Type: research