The characteristics and clinical outcomes of a pluripotent high-risk group with the potential to develop a diverse range of psychiatric disorders.

Background: Recent studies have indicated that clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) is highly specific for psychotic disorders other than pluripotential to various serious mental illnesses. However, not all CHR-P develop psychotic disorder only, and psychosis can occur in non-psychotic disorders as well. Our prospective cohort study aims to investigate the characteristics and clinical outcomes of a pluripotent high-risk group with the potential to develop a diverse range of psychiatric disorders.

Methods: The SPRIM study is a prospective naturalistic cohort program that focuses on the early detection of those at risk of developing serious mental illness, including psychosis (CHR-P), bipolar (CHR-B), and depressive disorder (CHR-D), as well as undifferentiated risk participants (UCHR). Our study has a longitudinal design with a baseline assessment and eight follow-up evaluations at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, and 48 months to determine whether participants have transitioned to psychosis or mood disorders.

Results: The SPRIM sample consisted of 90 CHR participants. The total cumulative incidence rate of transition was 53.3% (95% CI 32.5-77.2). CHR-P, CHR-B, CHR-D, and UCHR had cumulative incidence rates of 13.7% (95% CI 3.4-46.4), 52.4% (95% CI 28.1-81.1), 66.7% (95% CI 24.6-98.6) and 54.3% (95% CI 20.5-93.1), respectively. The cumulative incidence of psychosis, bipolar, and depressive disorder among all participants was 3.3% (95% CI 0.8-11.5), 45.7% (95% CI 24.4-73.6), and 11.2% (95% CI 3.1-36.2), respectively.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that the concept of pluripotent high-risk for a diverse range of psychiatric disorders is an integrative approach to examining transdiagnostic interactions between illnesses with a high transition rate and minimizing stigma.