Health
Psychosis risk factors identified
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 28, 2008
Among adolescents at high risk for a psychotic illness, a handful of characteristics can differentiate those who will develop this problem from those who most likely will not, according to a study in the January Archives of General Psychiatry.
The authors followed 291 adolescents presenting for early symptoms that could indicate the development of a psychotic illness. Those who spent increasing amounts of time alone doing nothing and had a family history of mental illness combined with recent declines in ability to function were at increased risk. Other factors that upped the chance of psychosis included increases in unusual thoughts, such as believing strangers are talking about you; paranoia; and past or current drug abuse.
"When teens have a dive in grades or drop out of the school band, and it happens against a backdrop of family history of schizophrenia and recent troubling changes in perception, ... more often than not it indicates that psychosis is fairly imminent," said Tyrone D. Cannon, PhD, lead author and director of the Staglin Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers are planning studies to confirm the results.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/01/28/hlbf0128.htm.
