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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

High Content Screening in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Published on: January 6, 2012
Normal controls are expensive to find: methods to improve cost-effectiveness of the screening evaluation
Dianne Schechter1, Rochelle Lebovitch
1Department of Research Assessment and Training, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 123, New York, NY 10032, USA. des3@columbia.edu
Abstract:
A program for the recruitment of control subject is examined by considering the yield of healthy subjects as a function of the initial screening interview. All subjects who passed the screen also completed a diagnostic evaluation for lifetime history of mental disorders. Version 1 of the screen focused on excluding individuals who were currently mentally ill. Approximately 20% met criteria for Never Mentally Ill (NMI); 7% had one episode of a minor mental disorder (MMD); 43% were currently not mentally ill, but had a serious history of mental illness (CNMI); and 30% were currently mentally ill (CMI). Revision of the screen to exclude individuals with any history of treatment for mental illness significantly improved the proportion of NMI subjects (29%), and there was a trend for a decreased proportion of CMI subjects (25%). Additional revision of the screen to exclude individuals with a history of selected untreated mental disorders resulted in a significantly greater proportion of NMI subjects (50%), and a significantly lower proportion of CMI (17%) subjects. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the cost-effectiveness of the initial screen can be greatly improved by expanding the evaluation to include selected untreated as well as treated mental disorders.
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