Thematic content of obsessive and compulsive symptoms and conversion to psychosis in a clinical high-risk cohort.

Aim: We sought to explore the complex phenomenological overlap between obsessive and compulsive symptoms (OCS), and attenuated positive symptoms among 156 young people at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis.

Methods: In order to explore the hypothesis that OCS of an implausible nature might optimally predict future transition to syndromal psychosis, ideas associated with obsessive and compulsive experiences elicited by clinical measures were thematically categorized as "plausible" or "implausible."

Results: While OCS were found to be common in our CHR sample, we did not find that implausible OCS themes were predictive of conversion.

Temporal relationship between onset of positive and negative symptoms in the course of attenuated psychotic illness.

Research in individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis has traditionally focused on the relationship between the severity of positive and negative symptoms and development of syndromal psychosis. In this study, we examined the temporal order of emergence of positive and negative symptoms in 116 CHR individuals who met criteria for the Attenuated Positive Symptom Syndrome defined in the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes (SIPS). We found that positive symptoms emerged at a significantly younger age than negative symptoms with no significant differences between converters and non-converters.