Abstract
Introduction: Although attenuated psychotic symptoms often occur for the first time during adolescence, studies focusing on adolescents are scarce. Attenuated psychotic symptoms form the criteria to identify individuals at increased clinical risk of developing psychosis. The study of individuals with these symptoms has led to the release of the DSM-5 diagnosis of Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome (APS) as a condition for further research. We aimed to characterize and compare hospitalized adolescents with DSM-5-APS diagnosis vs. hospitalized adolescents without a DSM-5-APS diagnosis.Methods: Interviewing help-seeking, hospitalized adolescents (aged 12–18 years) and their caregivers independently with established research instruments, we (1) evaluated the presence of APS among non-psychotic adolescents, (2) characterized and compared APS and non-APS individuals regarding sociodemographic, illness and intervention characteristics, (3) correlated psychopathology with levels of functioning and severity of illness and (4) investigated the influence of individual clinical, functional and comorbidity variables on the likelihood of participants to be diagnosed with APS.Results: Among 248 consecutively recruited adolescents (age=15.4 ± 1.5 years, females = 69.6%) with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders, 65 (26.2%) fulfilled APS criteria and 183 (73.8%) did not fulfill them. Adolescents with APS had higher number of psychiatric disorders than non-APS adolescents (3.5 vs. 2.4, p < 0.001; Cohen's d = 0.77), particularly, disruptive behavior disorders (Cramer's V = 0.16), personality disorder traits (Cramer's V = 0.26), anxiety disorders (Cramer's V = 0.15), and eating disorders (Cramer's V = 0.16). Adolescents with APS scored higher on positive (Cohen's d = 1.5), negative (Cohen's d = 0.55), disorganized (Cohen's d = 0.51), and general symptoms (Cohen's d = 0.84), and were more severely ill (Cohen's d = 1.0) and functionally impaired (Cohen's d = 0.31). Negative symptoms were associated with lower functional levels (Pearson ρ = −0.17 to −0.20; p = 0.014 to 0.031). Global illness severity was associated with higher positive, negative, and general symptoms (Pearson ρ = 0.22 to 0.46; p = 0.04 to p < 0.001). APS status was independently associated with perceptual abnormalities (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.6–2.5, p < 0.001), number of psychiatric diagnoses (OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.2–2.0, p = 0.002), and impaired stress tolerance (OR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.1–1.7, p = 0.002) (r2 = 0.315, p < 0.001).Conclusions: A considerable number of adolescents hospitalized with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders meet DSM-5-APS criteria. These help-seeking adolescents have more comorbid disorders and more severe symptoms, functional impairment, and severity of illness than non-APS adolescents. Thus, they warrant high intensity clinical care.
Highlights
Attenuated psychotic symptoms often occur for the first time during adolescence, studies focusing on adolescents are scarce
248 hospitalized adolescents with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders were included in this study
There were no significant differences between the two groups in any of the demographic characteristics (Table 1)
Summary
Attenuated psychotic symptoms often occur for the first time during adolescence, studies focusing on adolescents are scarce. We aimed to characterize and compare hospitalized adolescents with DSM-5-APS diagnosis vs hospitalized adolescents without a DSM-5-APS diagnosis Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are usually preceded by a clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P) state [1], which is characterized by subtle symptoms, functional impairment and help-seeking behavior [2,3,4], as well as non-psychotic comorbidity [5, 6]. The CHR-P state, which includes individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis and/or those with basic symptoms, has allowed preventive efforts to be implemented [7, 8] This area of clinical research has grown until it has become one of the most established preventive approaches in psychiatry [7, 8]. Psychosis risk is higher in the BLIPS group (38%) than in the attenuated psychotic symptoms group (24%) and higher in both groups than in the GRD group (8%) at >48 months follow-up [10]
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