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Three‐year course of clinical symptomatology in young people at ultra high risk for transition to psychosis
Author(s) -
Velthorst E.,
Nieman D. H.,
Klaassen R. M. C.,
Becker H. E.,
Dingemans P. M.,
Linszen D. H.,
De Haan L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01593.x
Subject(s) - psychosis , psychiatry , life course approach , transition (genetics) , psychology , course (navigation) , young adult , medicine , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , astronomy , gene
Velthorst E, Nieman DH, Klaassen RMC, Becker HE, Dingemans PM, Linszen DH, de Haan L. Three year course of clinical symptomatology in young people at ultra high risk for transition to psychosis. Objective: The investigation into the course of ultra high risk (UHR) symptomatology of those patients who eventually do not meet the psychosis‐threshold criteria within the 3‐year timeframe of the study. Method: The course of UHR symptoms, GAF score and employment status was investigated in 57 patients who did not make a transition to psychosis and who were examined within the Dutch Prediction of Psychosis Study in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Results: At the 3‐ year follow‐up, 75% of the patients who did not make a transition to psychosis had remitted from UHR status. With a Generalized Estimation Equation Model it was shown that this group recovered from positive ( F = 52.7, P < 0.0001), negative ( F = 24.3, P < 0.0001), disorganization ( F = 14.4, P < 0.0001) and general symptoms ( F = 25.0, P < 0.0001) within the timeframe of the study. In addition, the level of global functioning and likelihood of having a job and/or education significantly improved. The largest improvements occurred within the first year. UHR symptoms did not re‐occur after improvement. Conclusion: With the current UHR criteria, a large percentage of the included subjects appear to have transitory complaints and dysfunctioning. A refinement of the UHR criteria may diminish the chance of including ‘false positives’ in future UHR studies.