Psychosis risk screening in clinical high-risk adolescents: A longitudinal investigation using the Child Behavior Checklist

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Diana I. Simeonova, Emory University; Theresa Nguyen, Emory University; Elaine F. Walker, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2014-08-27
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2014.07.046
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Schizophrenia Research
• Volume: 159
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 7
• End Page: 13
• Keywords: Prevention; Psychosis risk; CBCL; Early intervention; Adolescents; Prodrome; Clinical high-risk; Screening
• Subject - Topics: Adolescent psychology; Mental illness; Psychoses

Abstract

This is the first study to investigate whether parent-reported social and behavioral problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) can be used for psychosis risk screening and the identification of at-risk youth in the general population. This longitudinal investigation assessed 122 adolescent participants from three groups (at-risk, other personality disorders, nonpsychiatric controls) at baseline and one year follow-up. The findings indicate that two individual CBCL rating scales, Withdrawn/Depressed and Thought Problems, have clinical and diagnostic utility as an adjunctive risk screening measure to aid in early detection of at-risk youth likely to develop psychosis. Furthermore, the findings shows that a cost-effective, general screening tool with a widespread use in community and pediatric healthcare settings has a promise to serve as a first step in a multi-stage risk screening process. This can potentially facilitate increased screening precision and reduction of high rate of false-positives in clinical high-risk individuals who present with elevated scores on psychosis-risk measures, but ultimately do not go on to develop psychosis. The findings of the present study also have significant clinical and research implications for the development of a broad-based psychosis risk screening strategy, and novel prevention and early intervention approaches in at-risk populations for the emergence of severe mental illness.