The Association of Minor Physical Anomalies with Clinical and Subclinical Psychotic Symptoms

Psychosis is a condition characterized on current diagnostic tests by impairment and may include severe disturbances of cognition, thinking, behaviour, and emotion. The need for early diagnosis and prevention of psychotic episodes in adolescents challenges traditional models of counselling, diagnosis, and treatment. The aim of the present study is to derive the main themes and psychological manifestations in the first psychotic episode in adolescents and to deepen knowledge and raise questions around the specific experiences of psychotic adolescents in order to help the clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in diagnostic and therapeutic counselling. This thus goes beyond the visible behaviour and the medical model that pays little attention to the causal relationships in psychosis and its unconscious components. Thirty-six adolescents (27 girls) with subclinical and clinical psychotic symptoms and 30 adolescents (16 girls) with neurotic symptoms were interviewed. A clinical approach was used – clinical psychological interview followed by psychotherapeutic work. Findings and statements can be found showing that early psychotic signs may change into a more severe adolescent crisis, as well as indications of the nature of anger towards parents, unstable mood and aggressivity. Leading themes in interviews and psychotherapeutic sessions may relate to feelings of insignificance in the world around them, unclear sexual identification, too close a relationship with their mothers, and anxiety about real or symbolic absence such as their mothers’ working away from home for long periods of time. In 79% of the interviews with adolescents with psychotic symptoms, we see a lack of real symbolic play in childhood. suitable for non-psychotic adolescents, in this case to change in the first psychotic episode.****What does this last sentence mean? The importance of early diagnosis is recognized and the known psychotherapeutic techniques must be used. Keywords: early psychosis, adolescent, positive psychotherapy, counselling

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Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives and the association with subclinical psychotic symptoms

Nordic Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1080/08039488.2021.1966097 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Barış Sancak ◽

Güliz Özgen Hergül

Keyword(s):

Psychotic Symptoms ◽

Obsessive Compulsive ◽

Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms ◽

First Degree Relatives ◽

Subclinical Psychotic Symptoms

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Disturbances of basic self and prodromal symptoms among non-psychotic help-seeking adolescents

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291712002322 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (7) ◽

pp. 1365-1376 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

D. Koren ◽

N. Reznik ◽

M. Adres ◽

R. Scheyer ◽

A. Apter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Psychosocial Functioning ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Psychotic Symptoms ◽

Risk Markers ◽

Prodromal Symptoms ◽

The Social ◽

Prodromal Syndrome ◽

The Relationship ◽

Subclinical Psychotic Symptoms

BackgroundThe goal of this study was to explore the notion that anomalies of self-experience (ASE) are a core, ‘not-yet-psychotic’ clinical phenotype of emerging schizophrenia and its spectrum.MethodTo accomplish this goal, we examined the relationship between ASE and commonly accepted risk markers in a sample of 87 help-seeking, non-psychotic adolescents (aged 14–18 years). ASE were assessed with the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE), subclinical psychotic symptoms were assessed with the Prodromal Questionnaire and the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes, deterioration in psychosocial functioning was assessed with the Social and Role Functioning Scales, and level of distress with the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire.ResultsAbout 82 participants completed the entire EASE interview. The number of participants who reported ASE at a clinically meaningful level (n = 18, 22%) was smaller than that who met diagnostic criteria for a prodromal syndrome (n = 28, 34%). The degree of overlap between the two conditions was moderate but statistically significant (χ2(1) = 7.01, p = 0.008). An exploratory factor analysis revealed that ASE load on a different factor than prodromal symptoms and deterioration in functioning, but that there is a moderate correlation between the three factors.ConclusionsThese results suggest that ASE are prevalent among non-psychotic help-seeking adolescents, yet at a considerably lower rate than prodromal symptoms. In addition, they suggest that ASE and prodromal symptoms constitute distinct but moderately related dimensions of potential risk. Taken together, they provide preliminary support for the clinical usefulness of supplementing and refining the methods of early detection of risk with assessment of ASE.

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