Related Experiment Videos
Towards a psychosis risk blood diagnostic for persons experiencing high-risk symptoms: preliminary results from the
Diana O Perkins1, Clark D Jeffries2, Jean Addington3
1Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; diana_perkins@med.unc.edu.
Insights
A novel blood test accurately identifies individuals at high risk for psychosis, distinguishing those who will develop the condition from those who will not. This advancement aids in developing crucial preventative interventions for psychosis.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomarkers
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Accurate identification of individuals at high risk for psychosis is crucial for developing preventative treatments.
- Current diagnostic methods lack the precision needed to effectively target early interventions.
- A validated blood test could significantly improve the identification of at-risk individuals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a blood test for identifying individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P).
- To distinguish CHR-P individuals who will develop psychosis from those who will not (CHR-NP) and from unaffected comparison subjects (UC).
Main Methods:
- The North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study measured plasma analytes related to inflammation, oxidative stress, hormones, and metabolism.
- A greedy algorithm selected 15 analytes from 117 to create a classifier distinguishing CHR-P from UC and CHR-NP groups.
- The classifier's accuracy was assessed using the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC).
Main Results:
- The developed classifier achieved high accuracy, with an AUC of 0.91 for CHR-P vs UC and 0.88 for CHR-P vs CHR-NP.
- Randomization tests confirmed the classifier's results were not due to chance, indicating robust biomarker information.
- Findings suggest inflammation, oxidative stress, and hypothalamic-pituitary axis dysregulation are prominent in early psychosis stages.
Conclusions:
- A multiplex blood assay shows potential for high clinical utility in identifying individuals at elevated risk of psychosis.
- Further validation in diverse at-risk populations is necessary to confirm clinical applicability.
- This blood test could facilitate the development and implementation of targeted psychosis prevention strategies.
Introduction:
A barrier to preventative treatments for psychosis is the absence of accurate identification of persons at highest risk. A blood test that could substantially increase diagnostic accuracy would enhance development of psychosis prevention interventions.
Methods:
The North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study project is a multisite endeavor that aims to better understand predictors and mechanisms for the development of psychosis. In this study, we measured expression of plasma analytes reflecting inflammation, oxidative stress, hormones, and metabolism. A "greedy algorithm" selected analytes that best distinguished persons with clinical high-risk symptoms who developed psychosis (CHR-P; n = 32) from unaffected comparison (UC) subjects (n = 35) and from those who did not develop psychosis during a 2-year follow-up (CHR-NP; n = 40).
Results:
The classifier included 15 analytes (selected from 117), with an area under the receiver operating curve for CHR-P vs UC of 0.91 and CHR-P vs CHR-NP of 0.88. Randomly scrambled group membership followed by reconstructions of the entire classifier method yielded consistently weak classifiers, indicating that the true classifier is highly unlikely to be a chance occurrence. Such randomization methods robustly imply the assays contain consistent information distinguishing the groups which was not obscured by the data normalization method and was revealed by classifier construction. These results support the hypothesis that inflammation, oxidative stress, and dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary axes may be prominent in the earliest stages of psychosis.
Conclusion:
If confirmed in other groups of persons at elevated risk of psychosis, a multiplex blood assay has the potential for high clinical utility.
Related Concept Videos
01:28Psychosis and Antipsychotic Drugs: Overview
01:26Positive Symptoms Schizophrenia: Hallucinations and Delusions
Hallucinations
Hallucinations in...
01:29Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
01:26Psychosis: Goals of Pharmacotherapy
01:27Psychosis: Pathophysiology of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders
Researchers have identified genetic factors that increase susceptibility to schizophrenia, underscoring the intricate interplay between genetics and environment in disease development. At the core of schizophrenia's pathophysiology is excessive dopaminergic neurotransmission within...
01:17Schizophrenia