Social impairment in relation to clinical symptoms in youth at high risk for bipolar disorder.

Aim: Social impairment is common in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD), although its role in youths at high-risk for BD (i.e., mood symptoms in the context of a family history of BD) is not well understood.

Family-focused therapy for individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: treatment fidelity within a multisite randomized trial.

Aim: Family psychoeducation is an effective adjunct to pharmacotherapy in delaying relapse among patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This study tested the treatment adherence and competence of newly trained clinicians to an adaptation of family-focused therapy for individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (FFT-CHR).

Methods: The sample included 103 youth or young adults (ages 12-30 years) who had attenuated positive symptoms of psychosis.

Diagnostic profiles and clinical characteristics of youth referred to a pediatric mood disorders clinic.

Objectives: This study examined the diagnostic profiles and clinical characteristics of youth (ages 6-18 years) referred for diagnostic evaluation to a pediatric mood disorders clinic that specializes in early-onset bipolar disorder.

Method: A total of 250 youth were prescreened in an initial telephone intake, and 73 participated in a full diagnostic evaluation. Trained psychologists administered the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADSPL) to the child and to at least one parent, and a child psychiatrist conducted a separate pharmacological evaluation.

Perceptions of family criticism and warmth and their link to symptom expression in racially/ethnically diverse adolescents and young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Aim: Little is known about the role of expressed emotion (EE) in early symptom expression in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. In patients with established schizophrenia, the effects of EE on clinical outcomes have purportedly varied across racial/ethnic groups, but this has not yet been investigated among CHR patients. Furthermore, studies have traditionally focused upon caregiver levels of EE via interview-based ratings, whereas the literature on patient perceptions of caregiver EE on psychosis symptoms is relatively limited.

Reciprocal social behavior in youths with psychotic illness and those at clinical high risk.

Youths at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis typically exhibit significant social dysfunction. However, the specific social behaviors associated with psychosis risk have not been well characterized. We administer the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a measure of autistic traits that examines reciprocal social behavior, to the parents of 117 adolescents (61 CHR individuals, 20 age-matched adolescents with a psychotic disorder [AOP], and 36 healthy controls) participating in a longitudinal study of psychosis risk.