Longitudinal validation of psychosis risk screening tools

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Standardized interview tools aid in defining "clinical high risk" syndrome for intervention development.
• Current interview tools are burdensome, limiting widespread adoption.
• Scalable early intervention requires brief, low-cost screening tools for population screening and treatment triage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive strength of three self-report measures for psychosis onset and symptom persistence.
• To validate brief screening tools in an indicated sample of adolescents and young adults at clinical high risk.

Main Methods:

• The study evaluated three self-report measures: Prime Screen-Revised, Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief, and Youth Psychosis at Risk Questionnaire-Brief.
• A sample of 54 adolescents and young adults (ages 12-22) at clinical high risk were followed for six months.
• Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for psychosis onset and symptom persistence were assessed.

Main Results:

• All three self-report measures demonstrated excellent sensitivity to emerging psychosis.
• The screeners showed strong agreement with clinician evaluations of attenuated psychosis symptoms.
• All screeners achieved a negative predictive value of 1.00 for psychosis onset, indicating low risk for those below the threshold.

Conclusions:

• Longitudinal validation of these psychosis risk screening tools is crucial for early identification and monitoring.
• Brief, validated self-report measures can facilitate widespread screening and early intervention for clinical high risk youth.
• These findings support the establishment of a standard of care for identifying and monitoring individuals at risk for psychosis.