Preliminary findings for two new measures of social and role functioning in the prodromal phase of schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Research on prediction and prevention of schizophrenia has increasingly focused on prodromal (prepsychosis) social and role dysfunction as developmentally early, stable, and treatment-resistant illness components. In this report, 2 new measures, Global Functioning: Social and Global Functioning: Role, are presented, along with preliminary findings about psychometric properties and course of social and role (academic/work) functioning in the prodromal phase of psychosis.


METHODS
Subjects included 69 participants from the Recognition and Prevention program and 52 from the Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States. Ages ranged from 12 to 29 years, and all met criteria for Attenuated Positive Symptom syndrome. Retrospective (past year) and baseline data are reported for all 121 prodromal subjects and for 44 normal controls (NCs). Prospective follow-up data are reported for a subsample of patients reevaluated at both 6 and 12 months (N = 44).


RESULTS
For both scales, interrater reliability was high, and preliminary data supported construct validity. Relative to NCs, prodromal individuals displayed impaired social and role functioning at baseline. Analyses of change over time indicated that role functioning declined over the year before ascertainment and improved over 12-month follow-up, presumably with treatment. Social impairment, by contrast, was constant across time and predicted later psychosis (P = .002).


CONCLUSIONS
Using 2 new global measures, social functioning was found to be a stable trait, unchanged by treatment, with considerable potential to be a marker of schizophrenia. Role functioning, by contrast, may be a more direct barometer of clinical change and may be responsive to treatment and environmental change.
Cornblatt
Barbara A
BA
Recognition and Prevention Program, Department of Psychiatry Research, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, 75-59 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA. cornblat@lij.edu
Auther
Andrea M
AM
Niendam
Tara
T
Smith
Christopher W
CW
Zinberg
Jamie
J
Bearden
Carrie E
CE
Cannon
Tyrone D
TD
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009518:New York; D010379:Peer Group; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012306:Risk; D012380:Role; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment