Diwadkar Vaibhav A, Prasad Konasale M, Keshavan Matcheri S
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Room 441, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2004 Aug;6(4):296-302. doi: 10.1007/s11920-004-0080-2.
Prospective studies of adolescents at risk for schizophrenia (high-risk studies) can shed light on the possible premorbid precursors of schizophrenia. Recent studies have provided evidence of neurobehavioral, brain structural, physiologic, and neurochemical deficits in adolescent nonpsychotic high-risk relatives that may date back to childhood or earlier. These results are collectively providing a critical window into the inter-relationships between genetic predisposition, neurodevelopment, and premorbid indicators of risk in schizophrenia. Convergent approaches are inherently powerful in mutually informing each other in enriching the knowledge of the risk factors that predict the eventual onset of schizophrenia. Defining such reliable predictors of the onset of schizophrenia may provide us with the tools to better understand the etiology and pathophysiology of the illness, and may pave the way for innovative methods of treatment and possibly prevention. The authors review the relevant literature in this promising field of inquiry and summarize recent findings from high-risk studies.
对有精神分裂症风险的青少年进行的前瞻性研究（高危研究）能够揭示精神分裂症可能的病前先兆。近期研究已证实，青少年非精神病性高危亲属存在神经行为、脑结构、生理及神经化学方面的缺陷，这些缺陷可能可追溯至童年或更早时期。这些结果共同为了解精神分裂症的遗传易感性、神经发育及病前风险指标之间的相互关系提供了关键窗口。综合研究方法在相互借鉴以丰富对预测精神分裂症最终发病的风险因素的认识方面具有内在优势。确定此类精神分裂症发病的可靠预测指标或许能为我们提供工具，以更好地理解该疾病的病因和病理生理学，并可能为创新的治疗方法乃至预防方法铺平道路。作者回顾了这一充满前景的研究领域的相关文献，并总结了高危研究的近期发现。
