Clinical high-risk states describe assessed patterns associated with an increased probability of developing psychosis compared with some comparison groups. Criteria may include attenuated symptoms, brief psychotic experiences or certain combinations of vulnerability and functional decline. They are used in specialist clinical and research settings and should not be applied through informal self-diagnosis.<\/p>\n
A prodrome is a period of changes that precedes a more clearly defined illness episode. In psychosis, early changes may involve functioning, mood, sleep or unusual experiences. The term is often applied retrospectively because many similar changes occur in people who never develop a psychotic disorder.<\/p>\n
Risk is a probability, not a prediction about an individual. Many people identified as high risk do not develop psychosis, although they may still have significant difficulties needing care. Estimates depend on who is assessed, how criteria are defined and the follow-up period. Services therefore focus on present symptoms, functioning and monitoring as well as prevention. A label should be explained carefully to avoid unnecessary fear. Treatment decisions require consideration of benefits and harms rather than assuming that higher risk automatically justifies long-term medication.<\/p>\n
Predictive value depends on where a test is used. A measure developed in a specialist referral service may perform differently in a general population where psychosis is less common. This is why risk figures require context. Communicating the denominator and follow-up period helps prevent a research category from being interpreted as a definitive forecast for every person who meets it.<\/p>\n
Further reading:<\/strong> National Institute of Mental Health<\/a>; NICE clinical guideline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clinical high-risk states describe assessed patterns associated with an increased probability of developing psychosis compared with some comparison groups. Criteria may include attenuated symptoms, brief psychotic experiences or certain combinations of vulnerability and functional decline.\u2026Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[26],"class_list":["entry","author-","has-excerpt","post-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-course-of-illness","tag-prodrome"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schizophrenia.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}