Evidence from experimental psychology provides unequivocal support for enhanced creativity among individuals who are prone to psychotic and mood disorders. At the same time, there is strong epidemiological evidence for greater incidence of creative achievement among those diagnosed with bipolar disorder (but not schizophrenia). This review…

In this descriptive study, the academic success (graduation rate, graduating grade-point-average, semesters to graduation) and the patterns of academic engagement (time from first to last enrollment, characteristics of the "time-outs" taken, between-semester volatility in grade-point-average) for five groups of students with psychiatric…

Objective: Given the fundamental role of thought disorder in schizophrenia, subtle communication disturbance may be a valuable predictor of subsequent development of psychosis. Here we examined the contribution of thought and communication disturbance to the prediction of outcome in adolescents identified as putatively prodromal for psychosis.…

A comparison of clinical features and adult outcome in adolescents with three types of psychotic disorders: schizophrenic (SPh), schizoaffective (SA) and bipolar with psychotic features (BPP). Subjects (n = 41) were finally diagnosed (DSM-IV criteria) with SPh (n = 17), SA (n = 11) or BPP (n = 13). Clinical evaluation took place at onset and at a…

The regional gray matter volumes of adolescents with first-episode psychosis are compared with those of a control group. Magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 70 patients with early onset FEP and on 51 individuals without FEP. Findings revealed that volume deficits in the left medial frontal gray matter were common in individuals with…

Aberrant salience is the unusual or incorrect assignment of salience, significance, or importance to otherwise innocuous stimuli and has been hypothesized to be important for psychosis and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Despite the importance of this concept in psychosis research, no questionnaire measures are available to assess…

Teacher ratings on the Behavior Problem Checklist of adolescents who were clinically diagnosed as schizophrenic (psychotic) and those who had an adjustment reaction of adolescence (nonpsychotic) were compared. The schizophrenics tended to be rated as more deviant on both the flag items and Inadequacy-Immaturity dimensions of the checklist. (Author)

Objective: This article reviews evidence on the treatment of early episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders that contradicts, in some cases, the American Psychiatric Association's generic recommendation of antipsychotic medication treatment for at least a year. Method: Evidence on lack of diagnostic validity, absence of demonstrated long-term…

A comparative assessment of eight normal and eight psychotic children in a stimulus generalization paradigm using simple and complex figures. Six of the subjects fulfilled the criteria for infantile autism. (CM)