7. EXPLORING PSYCHOTIC EXPERIENCES IN DEVELOPING MINDS – WHAT MORE CAN WE DO IN EARLY CHILDHOOD?

Abstract

Subclinical positive symptoms that do not conform to a diagnosis of psychotic disorders are often referred to as psychotic experiences (PE). PE are common throughout development and are particularly prevalent in childhood in adolescence with estimated prevalence-rates around 10-20%. Hence, PE are often seen as a part of normal development. Nevertheless, PE share common risk factors and genetic vulnerability with psychotic disorders and mark an increased risk of psychotic disorders later in life. The link to psychotic disorders is, however, not specific, and PE are associated with a wide array of nonpsychotic disorders. Persistent psychotic experiences are associated with detrimental outcomes, but even transient PE have been shown to be associated with poorer functional outcomes. Although PE are increasingly recognized as transdiagnostic markers of severity and liability, several questions remain unanswered. Overall, this symposium will assess the critical lack of knowledge on PE in children prior to adolescence and provide a necessary understanding of genetic and familial risk factors of PE, as well as adolescent outcomes of childhood PE. The symposium will provide broad findings from 4 unique cohorts from 3 different countries. Ditte Ellersgaard will present findings from the Danish High Risk and Resilience Study - VIA, including a total of 522 children of parents with schizophrenia spectrum psychoses (202), Bipolar disorders (100) and neither disorder (200). PE were measured at age 7, and clinical correlates, patterns in familial risk and challenges of measuring PE at this age group will be discussed. Nicole Karcher will present data on PE from children age 9-10 from the multi-site Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (ABCD), including almost 4000 children from 20 sites across the USA. The current presentation will introduce phenotypic and neural correlates of childhood PE that were assessed using the novel Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Child Version (PQ-BC). Martin K. Rimvall will present data from the prospective longitudinal general population birth cohort, the Copenhagen Child Cohort 2000. PE were assessed at both age 11 and 16 years in more than 1100 children, and the role of both remitting, incident and persistent PE will be presented in relation to non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts at age 16. Lotta-Katrin Pries will provide novel evidence from the largest ever Ecological Momentary Assessment study of a general population twin cohort including 593 adolescents and young adults from the TwinssCan project. The study shows interaction effects between polygenic risk for schizophrenia and childhood adversity on negative affect, positive affect, and subtle psychosis expression. Professor Mary Cannon who has been a leading investigator of PE will chair the symposium, and assistant professor Sinan Guloksuz will contribute as discussant with his extensive knowledge on the complex correlates of the extended psychosis phenotype.