Assessment of Risk for Psychosis

Abstract

This chapter summarizes methods for assessing risk for psychosis, presented with an eye to how the history of this endeavor has shaped its methodologies. While efforts to identify individual markers of risk for psychosis predate the development of psychosis-risk syndromes, the chapter starts by introducing the concept of risk in psychiatry, then identifies Attenuated Psychosis Syndromes (APS), and briefly discusses the methods and major measures for identifying them. It also includes vignettes that illustrate prototypal presentations of a number of APS. The chapter attempts to broaden the lens by presenting the theoretical framework that underlies efforts to assess risk for psychosis, both via specific markers and via methods that attempt to prospectively quantify risk at the individual level. In total, the authors give a brief overview of approaches to the identification of risk factors and risk indicators and then summarize research devoted to their elucidation. The chapter closes with remarks on how these different sources of knowledge, clinical observations, epidemiology, research on biomarkers, and a newer focus on prediction of psychosis, can be used jointly to maximize the predictive power of available tools to aid in real-time clinical decision-making regarding the possible course of unfolding illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)