title: Psychosis risk screening in clinical high-risk adolescents: a longitudinal investigation using the Child Behavior Checklist.
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, non-psychiatric 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 The findings indicate that two individual CBCL rating scales, Withdrawn/Depressed and Thought Problems, have clinical and diagnostic utility as an adjunctive risk screening measure to aid in early detection of at-risk youth likely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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States. Electronic address: dsimeon@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Diana I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Simeonova
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States.
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States.
authors.forename: Elaine F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D057189:Checklist / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D062706:Prodromal Symptoms; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012306:Risk
keywords: Adolescents; CBCL; Clinical high-risk; Early intervention; Prevention; Prodrome; Psychosis risk; Screening