Toward an evidence-based system for innovation support for implementing innovations with quality: tools, training, technical assistance, and quality assurance/quality improvement.

An individual or organization that sets out to implement an innovation (e.g., a new technology, program, or policy) generally requires support.

Prevalence and correlates of school drop-out prior to initial treatment of nonaffective psychosis: further evidence suggesting a need for supported education.

Background: Because dropping out of high school (i.e., secondary education) contributes prominently to numerous social, economic, and health conditions, formal public health initiatives promoting population health and social justice, especially in at-risk populations, are increasingly encouraged to address high school drop-out.

Associations between past alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine use and current schizotypy among first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls.

Associations between past use of alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine and various domains of schizotypy were examined in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls. Substance use was operationalized in three ways: (1) having ever used the substance, (2) age at first use, and (3) past frequency/amount of use during three time periods in late adolescence/early adulthood. Schizotypy was assessed using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ).

Factors related to knowledge retention after crisis intervention team training for police officers.

Objectives: This study examined whether knowledge scores of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officers would decline in the months following CIT training and whether shorter time since training would be a significant predictor of mental health knowledge retention. This study also examined whether sociodemographic and work-related characteristics would predict knowledge retention.

Methods: Eighty-eight CIT officers trained within the past three years completed an online survey containing sociodemographic and work-related questions and 17 of the 40 items used on the knowledge test that is administered at the end of training.

Mode of onset of psychosis and family involvement in help-seeking as determinants of duration of untreated psychosis.

Background: The duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is a potentially modifiable determinant of the early course of nonaffective psychotic disorders, though a paucity of research has addressed determinants of DUP. Recent data from London and Nottingham, UK indicated that a shorter DUP was predicted by: (1) an acute mode of onset, (2) employment, and (3) active involvement of at least one family member in seeking evaluation (Morgan et al. Br J Psychiatry 189:446-452, 2006).

The impact of mode of onset of psychosis on pathways to care in a hospitalized, predominantly African-American, first-episode sample.

Aim: Given recent findings that mode of onset is a determinant of duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), along with a dearth of research coupling the mode of onset and pathways to care constructs, this study explored the possible effects of mode of onset on pathways to care.

Methods: The study included 76 patients hospitalized for first-episode, nonaffective psychosis in two urban, public-sector psychiatric units. Consensus-based best estimates were derived for mode of onset, pathways to care variables and DUP.

No association between psychometrically-determined schizotypy and olfactory identification ability in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls.

Objective: This study examined potential associations between schizotypy--including positive, negative, and disorganized domains--and olfactory identification ability. Based on a prior report (Park, S., Schoppe, S.

Preliminary evidence of effects of crisis intervention team training on self-efficacy and social distance.

Objective: The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program is a collaborative model involving mental health professionals and law enforcement officers that is being implemented in a multitude of localities across the country. This study had two main objectives: (1) To assess perceptions of self-efficacy and desired social distance of control officers and officers entering CIT training with regard to individuals with psychiatric syndromes (depression and schizophrenia) and individuals with substance dependence (alcohol and cocaine), and (2) To examine the effects, if any, of CIT training on self-efficacy and social distance.

Methods: Between March and July 2006, a survey was administered to 34 control police officers, 58 officers just before a 40-h CIT training program, and 40 of these officers upon completion of the training.

Lack of support for the inability to taste phenylthiocarbamide as an endophenotypic marker in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives.

Objective: This study sought to replicate recent findings that both patients and relatives are significantly more likely to be phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) nontasters than healthy controls, and that within the patient group, nontasters have more severe positive and/or negative symptoms than tasters. Associations between PTC-tasting status and olfactory identification scores also were examined.

Method: PTC perception and olfactory identification were assessed in 48 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 28 first-degree relatives, and 32 healthy volunteers.

Associations between schizotypal features and indicators of neurological and morphological abnormalities.

Objective: Limited research suggests that subtle neurological and morphological abnormalities that have been documented in patients with schizophrenia also may be associated with schizotypal traits in non-psychiatric samples. Based on the notion that neurological soft signs (NSS) may mark a genetic diathesis, this study hypothesized that NSS scores would be related to the level of schizotypy in relatives of schizophrenia patients and in controls. Additionally, associations between MPA scores and schizotypy were explored in these two groups.

Psychometric properties of the Brief Version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire in relatives of patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and non-psychiatric controls.

The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Version (SPQ-B), which includes cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganized domains, was developed as a concise, self-report measure of schizotypy. This analysis was conducted to: (1) determine the internal consistency reliability of SPQ-B total and subscale scores, (2) use confirmatory factor analysis to assess the three-factor model as well as a single-factor solution, and (3) examine a measure of concurrent criterion validity of SPQ-B scores. The study was conducted at a large, urban, university-affiliated, public-sector health system in the southeastern United States.