ProNET – Psychosis Risk Outcomes Network
ProNET is an international study involving 26 research sites both in the U.S. and abroad! ProNET aims to understand the heterogeneity in the illness course of CHR in order to improve treatment using a combination of clinical interviews, biomarkers (EEG and MRI), genetics (blood and saliva samples), and cognition and neuropsychological testing.
ProNET is part of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership: Schizophrenia (AMP SCZ). Learn more: https://www.ampscz.org/
CAPR – Computerized Assessment of Psychosis Risk
Early identification of young people at clinical high risk for psychosis is crucial for providing early intervention, which can ultimately improve illness course and could even prevent onset of psychosis entirely. Current methods for early detection of psychosis risk lack specificity, require extensive training, and are only available at select research sites in the United States.
CAPR is a multi-site study aiming to broaden psychosis risk screening by developing a widely accessible computerized task battery that can identify those who are at risk of developing psychosis. We aim to use existing knowledge of the neurobiological mechanisms that underly the hallmark symptoms of psychosis to develop a battery that is domain sensitive and has a high reliability of prediction. In order to create this battery, we must determine which tasks are most effective for predicting psychosis risk and illness course. We have chosen 12 behavioral tasks which participants will complete on the computer. Participants will also complete a series of interviews and assessments to determine eligibility and assess for presence of psychosis risk syndromes.
This project is part of a collaborative R01 grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health with five other data collection sites.
YST – Youth Nominated Support Teams
Psychotic disorders are characterized by high rates of suicidal ideation and behavior, and the risk for suicide appears to be the greatest during the earliest stages of psychosis. Previous research has shown that majority of youth at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) experience suicidal ideation and that approximately 1 in 5 make at least one attempt. The YST intervention has recently been shown to reduce mortality
among adolescents and is potentially highly adaptable within the context of existing CHR services. YST is intended as an adjunctive treatment and is primarily delivered towards support persons rather than the youth themselves, and therefore would not interfere or overlap with the already extensive direct services provided in CHR treatment settings. The proposed project intends to adapt the YST intervention for CHR populations and to provide pilot efficacy data for a larger subsequent randomized trial.
MAP Study – Multisite Assessment of Psychosis-risk
The entry criteria CHR studies have traditionally required that participants have a mental health provider at the time of assessment. This criterion has functioned as a proxy for distress and/or psychosocial impairment, with the intention of targeting a group of people who may be truly at risk for a serious illness like schizophrenia. As a result, however, the knowledge of CHR to date is restricted to those with significant and developed psychiatric histories. Thus far there is limited research on the epidemiology, assessment, and trajectories of those with CHR syndromes in the general (potentially non-help-seeking) population.
In the first study of its kind, the PREVENT team and its collaborators at Temple and Northwestern are developing a novel screening instrument to detect psychosis-risk in the general population. Several thousand adolescents and young adults in four major cities (Baltimore, Irvine, Philadelphia, and Chicago) will be recruited from the community and surveyed for known psychosocial and environmental risk factors for psychosis, including psychostic experiences, sleep disturbances, and levels of stress exposure, among others. High-scoring participants and a random sample of low-scoring participants are subsequently invited into the laboratory for an in-depth, gold-standard clinical assessment of CHR and other psychiatric syndromes. The combined results of these two study phases will be used to empirically develop a brief self-report instrument with high ability to assess the likelihood of meeting CHR criteria and challenges in functioning.
This epidemiological study was recently funded by a large (R01) grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Clinical and research opportunities are available under this study for interested postdoctoral applicants, predoctoral interns, graduate students, and postbaccalaureate students interested in joining Dr. Schiffman’s lab.