Thought disorder in mid-childhood as a predictor of adulthood diagnostic outcome: findings from the New York High-Risk Project

Thought disorder has been proposed as an indicator of schizotypy, which is considered to be necessary but not sufficient for the development of schizophrenia. It is unclear whether thought disorder is an indicator of susceptibility (i.e. an endophenotype) for schizophrenia. The goal of the present s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 2013-05, Vol.43 (5), p.1003-1012
Main Authors: Gooding, D. C., Ott, S. L., Roberts, S. A., Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescence
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child of Impaired Parents - psychology
Children & youth
Early Diagnosis
Endophenotypes
Epidemiologic Methods
Female
Genetic Predisposition to Disease
High risk
Humans
Interview, Psychological
Male
Medical sciences
Mood Disorders - diagnosis
Mood Disorders - genetics
Negative thinking
Original Articles
Parents
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Risk factors
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnosis
Schizophrenia - genetics
Schizophrenic Psychology
Schizotypal Personality Disorder - diagnosis
Schizotypal Personality Disorder - psychology
Thinking
Thought disorder
Verbal Behavior
Young Adult
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Summary:Thought disorder has been proposed as an indicator of schizotypy, which is considered to be necessary but not sufficient for the development of schizophrenia. It is unclear whether thought disorder is an indicator of susceptibility (i.e. an endophenotype) for schizophrenia. The goal of the present study was to elucidate the role of thought disorder in relation to schizotypy by examining its presence in high-risk individuals during mid-childhood. Method The sample consisted of 265 subjects drawn from the New York High-Risk Project. Individuals at high risk for schizophrenia (i.e. offspring of parents with schizophrenia) were compared with individuals at low risk for schizophrenia (i.e. offspring of parents with affective disorder or offspring of psychiatrically normal parents). Videotaped interviews were rated for thought disorder using the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC). The same subjects were administered diagnostic interviews in late adolescence/early adulthood. Although positive thought disorder was equally present in subjects with affective and non-affective psychoses, negative thought disorder (namely, poverty of speech and poverty of content of speech) was elevated only in subjects with schizophrenia-related psychosis. Logistic regression analyses revealed that negative thought disorder added to the prediction of schizophrenia-related psychosis outcomes over and above positive thought disorder. These findings suggest that negative thought disorder may have a specific association with schizotypy, rather than a more general association with psychosis. The findings also support consideration of negative thought disorder as an endophenotypic indicator of a schizophrenia diathesis.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291712001791