LiHua Xu

Psychometric Properties of Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Version among Chinese Help-Seeking Individuals

Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ) and Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) have been used as a two-stage process for identifying subjects at clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis. The Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief version (PQ-B) contains 21 items derived from the PQ. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of PQ-B in a Chinese help-seeking outpatient sample and to explore which items can better predict CHR diagnosis by SIPS and future transition to psychosis. In our preliminary epidemiological study, 1461 patients from a pool of 2101 individuals (15–45 years of age) completed the two-stage process. In the present study, 239 (20%) people were randomly selected among the sample who met the initial PQ-B screening criteria but had no positive diagnosis on SIPS, as well as 72 individuals with negative results on both PQ-B and SIPS, 89 prodromal and 105 psychotic subjects, yielding a total of 505 participants. The internal consistency coefficient for the PQ-B was good, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.897. The concordant validity of PQ-B with SIPS dichotomized diagnosis of prodrome/psychosis versus no psychosis was 0.54. To ensure 80% or a higher sensitivity and a certain specificity, 7 and 24 were respectively set as the cutoff points for the PQ-B total score and distress score for Chinese help-seeking outpatients. A logistic regression model based on six PQ-B items could allow predicting the psychotic diagnosis on SIPS, with an accuracy of 65.8%. Prodromal individuals who scored higher on the 12th item of PQ-B (Do you worry at times that something may be wrong with your mind?) were less likely to convert to psychosis. PQ-B is a useful instrument for screening CHR subjects, but the cutoff score may be higher than that recommended by the author scores for help-seeking individuals in outpatient clinics. Some specific PQ-B items may have significant predictive power on dichotomized SIPS diagnoses and deserve special attention from researchers in future studies.

Correlation of social cognition and neurocognition on psychotic outcome: a naturalistic follow-up study of subjects with attenuated psychosis syndrome

Neurocognitive decline has been observed in patients with psychosis as well as attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS). We tested the hypothesis that APS increases dependence on neurocognition during the interpretation of others’ mental states and that a combination index of Theory of Mind (ToM) and neurocognition improves the predictive accuracy of psychosis conversion. A sample of 83 APS individuals and 90 healthy controls (HC) were assessed by comprehensive cognitive tests. The cohort also completed a one-year follow-up. In the APS group, ToM was associated with an apparent increase in neurocognition, but this trend was not evident in the HC group. Using the new index of combined neurocognition and ToM scores, the sensitivity for predicting psychosis-proneness was 75% and the specificity was 69%. Our data suggest that the correlations between ToM function and neurocognition in APS subjects were stronger than those in healthy controls. A composite index of neurocognition and ToM could improve the predictive validity of a future conversion to psychosis.

Reduced γ-Aminobutyric Acid and Glutamate+Glutamine Levels in Drug-Naïve Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia but Not in Those at Ultrahigh Risk.

Altered γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate (Glu) levels, and an imbalance between GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmissions have been involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear how these abnormalities impact the onset and course of psychosis. In the present study, 21 drug-naïve subjects at ultrahigh risk for psychosis (UHR), 16 drug-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES), and 23 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. In vivo GABA and glutamate+glutamine (Glx) levels in the medial prefrontal cortex were measured using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Medial prefrontal GABA and Glx levels in FES patients were significantly lower than those in HC and UHR, respectively. GABA and Glx levels in UHR were comparable with those in HC. In each group, there was a positive correlation between GABA and Glx levels. Reduced medial prefrontal GABA and Glx levels thus may play an important role in the early stages of schizophrenia.

Theory of Mind impairments in youth at Clinical High-Risk of Psychosis

Objective: The normal maturational processes of theory of mind (ToM) capacity are ongoing during adolescence and even early adulthood. However, research has shown that ToM ability also declines among adults suffering from prodromal psychotic experiences. The goal of this study was to investigate the characteristics of ToM performance in youth with clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis. Methods: The Reading Mind in Eyes Task (RMET), including own-race and other-race eyes, was administered to 40 CHR youth; 42 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls (HCs); and 62 adult patients with schizophrenia (SZ). Nine-month follow-up data were collected from 31 CHR subjects, of whom 7 (22.6%) had made the transition to psychosis. Results: CHR youth showed significant impairment in RMET performance compared to HC youth but performed better than did SZ patients. Moreover, they were significantly slower than were HC youth in responding to the RMET, with a response time similar to that of SZ patients. In particular, they had significantly poorer accuracy in interpreting positive and neutral eye expressions compared to the HC group, but not in interpreting negative eye expressions. Preliminary follow-up data showed a trend toward significance (p = 0.079) for RMET performance between those who transitioned to psychosis and those who did not. Conclusions: Our findings illustrate that deficits in ToM capacity, specifically the ability to interpret people’s mental state from eye expressions, occur early on in prodromal psychosis in youth. Early interventions for CHR youth focusing on ToM enhancement may halt progress toward psychosis.

Co-morbidity of personality disorder in schizophrenia among psychiatric outpatients in China: data from epidemiologic survey in a clinical population

BackgroundThe reported rates of personality disorder (PD) in subjects with schizophrenia (SZ) are quite varied across different countries, and less is known about the heterogeneity of PD among subjects with SZ. We examined the co-morbidity of PD among patients who are in the stable phase of SZ.Method850 subjects were randomly sampled from patients diagnosed with SZ in psychiatric and psycho-counseling clinics at Shanghai Mental Health Center. Co-morbidity of PDs was assessed through preliminary screening and patients were administered several modules of the SCID-II. Evidence of heterogeneity was evaluated by comparing patients diagnosed with SZ with those who presented with either affective disorder or neurosis (ADN).Results204 outpatients (24.0 %) in the stable phase of SZ met criteria for at least one type of DSM-IV PD. There was a higher prevalence of Cluster-A (odd and eccentric PD) and C (anxious and panic PD) PDs in SZ (around 12.0 %). The most prevalent PD was the paranoid subtype (7.65 %). Subjects with SZ were significantly more likely to have schizotypal PD (4.4 % vs. 2.1 %, p = 0.003) and paranoid PD (7.6 % vs. 5.4 %, p = 0.034), but much less likely to have borderline, obsessive-compulsive, depressive, narcissistic and histrionic PD.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that DSM-IV PD is common in patients with SZ than in the general population. Patterns of co-morbidity with PDs in SZ are different from ADN.

Progressive decline of cognition during the conversion from prodrome to psychosis with a characteristic pattern of the theory of mind compensated by neurocognition

The association between neurocognition and the theory of mind (ToM) abilities during the progression of psychosis is unclear. This study included 83 individuals with attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS), from which 26 converted to psychosis (converters) after a follow up period of 18months. Comprehensive cognitive tests (including MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, Faux-Pas Task, and Reading-Mind-in-Eyes Tasks) were administered at baseline. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to estimate the effects of neurocognition on the ToM functioning in both APS and healthy controls (HC) datasets. At baseline, the converters and non-converters groups differed significantly on several domains of cognitive performance. The SEM analysis demonstrated that the path from neurocognition to ToM was statistically significant in the APS dataset (p<0.001). However, in the HC dataset, the result of the same analysis was not significant (p=0.117). Positive correlations between neurocognition and ToM were observed, and the most obvious correlations were found in the converters group compared with the non-converters group (p=0.064) and compared with the HC group (p=0.002). The correlation between ToM abilities and neurocognition may be increased during the progression of the condition, especially for individuals who convert to psychosis after a short period.

Increased resting-state global functional connectivity density of default mode network in schizophrenia subjects treated with electroconvulsive therapy

Modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) has been widely applied to help treat schizophrenia patients who are treatment-resistant to pharmaceutical therapy. Although the technique is increasingly prevalent, the underlying neural mechanisms have not been well clarified. We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the alteration of global functional connectivity density (gFCD) in schizophrenia patients undergoing MECT using resting state fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Two groups of schizophrenia inpatients were recruited. One group received a four-week MECT together with antipsychotic drugs (ECT+Drug, n=21); the other group only received antipsychotic drugs (Drug, n=21). Both groups were compared to a sample of healthy controls (HC, n=23). fMRI scans were obtained from the schizophrenia patients twice at baseline (t1) and after 4-week treatment (t2), and from healthy controls at baseline. gFCD was computed using resting state fMRI. Repeated ANCOVA showed a significant interaction effect of group×time in the schizophrenia patients in left precuneus (Pcu), ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC), and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) (GRF-corrected P<0.05), which are mainly located within the default mode network (DMN). Post-hoc analysis revealed that compared with baseline (t1), an increased gFCD was found in the ECT+Drug group in the dMPFC (t=3.87, p=0.00095), vMPFC (t=3.95, p=0.00079) and left Pcu (t=3.33, p=0.0034), but no significant effect was identified in the Drug group. The results suggested that increased global functional connectivity density within the DMN might be one important neural mechanism of MECT in schizophrenia.

Comorbidity of personality disorder in obsessive-compulsive disorder: special emphases on the clinical significance.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been reclassified in the separate chapter obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V), indicating its distinction from other anxiety disorders for both phenomenology and etiology. However, the proposed alternative hybrid model for personality disorder (PD) was not accepted in the main body of the DSM-V. The PD category retains the DSMFourth Edition (DSM-IV) 10 PDs and shifts to a single axis system. It could be predicted that the comorbidity rate between OCD and PD would be drop due to those changes that happened in DSM-5. We had previously reported that clinicians tend to neglect the possibility of diagnosing a patient with PD in China. This is especially true when the patient exhibits clear OC symptoms. The truth is that, in clinical routine practice, not only the OCD patients themselves, but also their friends and family members, have struggled long against the personality pathology along with the course of OCD. Also, although their ways of thinking and feeling are almost always stubborn, dogmatic, and inflexible, which related to PD definition as stability in the signs and symptoms, cliniciansmay not actively discriminate PD inOCDpatients. It is noticeable that the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), as defined by the DSM-V (orderliness, perfectionism, excessive attention to details, mental and interpersonal control, and at the cost of efficiency, flexibility, and openness), has long been of great interest to clinicians as bearing a close relationship with OCD. Although it had been widely debated across the DSM working group regarding whether or not OCPD should be grouped with OCRDs, OCPD is better conceptualized as a disorder of personality for separating “personality characteristic” from “mental state” disorder. In many earlier studies, it was reported that about 50%–80% OCD patients met the criteria of OCPD (DSM, Third Edition; DSM-III), but in recent years, the rate was dropped to between 15% and 40% (DSM-IV). Due to those epidemiological surveys, which estimated that the comorbidity rate of OCPD in OCD was quite varied, neither persuasive evidence nor conclusion can be made regarding the etiological relationship between OCD and OCPD. It is crucial to assess PD among patients with OCD; obviously, this will be beneficial to practicing clinicians. First, assessing PD features could be helpful in better predicting more severe OCD symptoms and poorer outcome of OCD. PD features also may indicate a vulnerability to difficulties in interpersonal activities and more functional deterioration in the future. A recent study has indicated that comorbid borderline PD has a significant negative longitudinal impact on the course and outcome of patients with OCD. The authors suggested that PD should be treated concurrently with OCD, as PD worsening significantly predicted OCD relapse. Second, considering the characteristics of the OCD course, which is well-known for its long-standing duration and ease of relapse, appropriate intervention strategies targeting PD at very beginning would improve the prognoses. For instance, patients with OCD accompanied by schizotypal PD, psychological support should be tailored to address the magical thinking, unusual beliefs, “just-right” feelings. Otherwise, if OCD is accompanied by schizoid PD, supporting approaches should address interpersonal difficulties, which may help to reduce social ineptness. Therefore, PD should receive full therapeutic attention alongside OCD. * Address for correspondence: Zeping Xiao, MD, PhD, or Jijun Wang, MD, PhD, Shanghai Mental Health Center, 600 South Wanping Road, Shanghai 200030, PR China. (Email: xiao_zeping@126.com; xiaozeping88@163.com; jijunwang27@163.com) CNS Spectrums (2015), 20, 466–468.

Isolated hallucination is less predictive than thought disorder in psychosis: Insight from a longitudinal study in a clinical population at high risk for psychosis

Perceptual abnormalities (PAs) such as auditory hallucinations are one of the most common symptoms of psychotic patients. However, it remains unclear whether symptoms of sub-clinical PAs also play a key role in predicting psychosis. In an ongoing prospective follow-up study of individuals at a clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis, we evaluated the potential of first-time experience of PAs and/or thought content disorders (TCDs) to predict psychosis. Conversion to psychosis was the major focus of this follow-up study. A total of 511 CHRs were recruited, of whom 443 (86.7%) completed the clinical follow-up of at least 6 months and up to 2 years. CHRs were divided into four groups according to the presence of PAs and/or TCDs. At the follow-up endpoint, 39 (19.9%) CHRs in the “TCDs-only” group, 2 (8.3%) in the “PAs-only” group, 45 (17.0%) in the “TCDs-and-PAs” group, and 1 (3.8%) in the “None” group converted to psychosis. Survival analysis revealed a higher conversion rate in CHRs with TCDs compared with those with PAs only. CHRs with isolated PAs had shown a higher level of dysphoric mood at baseline compared with those with TCDs. About 89% TCDs contents were related with their experienced PAs. Compared with TCDs, the isolated PAs are not strongly associated with increased susceptibility to psychosis.

Identification and prediction of clinical high risk of psychosis in Chinese outpatients using two-stage screening

Two-stage screening, involving a self-rating report, followed by a structured interview, has been proposed for identifying clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR) for nearly two decades. This study used PRIME Screen-Revised (PS-R) and Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) to investigate the predictive validity of the two-stage screening. Of 566 participants who completed two-stage screening in this study, 192 were PS-R(-) and 374 were PS-R(+). After being interviewed with SIPS, 112 were rated as CHR(+), 109 were diagnosed with psychosis, and the other 345 individuals were CHR(-). Those who were rated through SIPS as CHR(+) and CHR(-) were followed up within 2 years to observe their clinical outcome. Ninety one (81.3%) CHR(+) and 171 (49.6%) CHR(-) individuals completed the investigation at baseline and the two-year follow-up. The cumulative conversion rate to psychosis was 27.5% in CHR(+) group, but only 1.7% in CHR(-) group, with a significant difference between the two groups (log-rank test, χ2 = 30.07, p < 0.001). In terms of two-stage screening, PS-R(-)/CHR(-), PS-R(-)/CHR(+), and PS-R(+)/CHR(-) groups were viewed as expected negative (EN), and the PS-R(+)/CHR(+) group as expected positive (EP), and the sensitivity and specificity was 64.3% and 79.1%, respectively. Furthermore, Kaplan-Meyer survival analysis showed that EP group were more likely to convert to psychosis than EN group (log-rank test, χ2 = 16.702, p < 0.001). Two-stage screening indeed saves much time and alleviates the workload, but may exclude some target individuals. Optimizing self-report scale, and forming a nurse-doctor-interviewer coalition are likely to improve the use of self-rating report and structured interview.