The Predictive Role of Self-representation in Transition of Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

Overview

Schizophrenia is one of the most consumptive diseases, which brings great loss to patients and their families, and even to the society. Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR) is a concept put forward on the basis of the prodromal stage of schizophrenia. Over the past 20 years, the identification and intervention of CHR has become the focus of psychiatric research, with the primary goal of early identification of biomarkers of susceptibility to schizophrenia and the development of individualized interventions to prevent or delay progression. Longitudinal studies have shown that CHR converted to schizophrenia mainly within two years, with a risk of about 30 percent. Self-disorder is one of the core characteristics of schizophrenia. The two most basic experiences of self-representation are sense of ownership and sense of agency. Sense of ownership refers to the sense that "I" perceives "my" body, while sense of agency refers to the sense that "I" experiences "my" actions and their consequences are initiated by "me". Some studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia show defects in the sense of ownership and agency. The most commonly used paradigm for observing "sense of ownership" and "sense of agency" is the rubber hand illusion (RHI) or the virtual hand illusion (VHI). In this study, the VHI experimental paradigm will be used to detect the self-representation of the individuals at high risk for psychosis, and the clinical outcome will be observed for one year.The hypothesis is that the subjects who exhibit abnormal illusion experience in VHI experiment are more likely to transition into psychotic disorders.

This study is conducted according to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants are recruited at the Shanghai Mental Health Center (SMHC) or its affiliate, the Shanghai Psychotherapy and Psychological Counseling Center (SPCC) with written informed consent, approved by the Research Ethics Committee of SMHC. For those younger than 18 years, both the adolescents and their next of kin or legal guardians are provided informed consents. The outpatients are recommended by doctors to participate in our CHR screening. After being screened and interviewed, those who meet the inclusion criteria are informed and signed written informed consent. Once the subjects are recruited, clinical evaluation, VHI and MCCB test will be conducted. In addition, CHR individuals will be followed up at one-year node.