Kirch D G, Lieberman J A, Matthews S M
Division of Clinical Research, National Institute of Mental Health, Rockville, MD 20857.
Schizophr Bull. 1992;18(2):177-8. doi: 10.1093/schbul/18.2.177.
Until recently, there has been a conspicuous lack of studies regarding the earliest phases of psychotic illness, with most research on schizophrenia and related disorders focusing on chronically ill patients. Currently, however, a number of investigators have turned their attention toward this topic, exploring the conceptual issues involved in defining the onset of psychosis, using case registers and population-based samples to do crucial epidemiologic studies on the course of schizophrenia, and developing mechanisms for identifying patients with first-episode psychosis and entering them into active research protocols. The issue of the Schizophrenia Bulletin is devoted to articles representing this full range of conceptual and empirical work on first-episode psychosis. The ultimate goal is for researchers working in this area to develop a network to enhance the sharing of concepts and data, with the eventual possibility of developing combined data bases and collaborative studies.
直到最近，关于精神病性疾病最早阶段的研究仍明显不足，大多数关于精神分裂症及相关障碍的研究都集中在慢性病患者身上。然而，目前一些研究人员已将注意力转向这一主题，探讨精神病发作定义中涉及的概念问题，利用病例登记和基于人群的样本对精神分裂症病程进行关键的流行病学研究，并开发识别首发精神病患者并将其纳入积极研究方案的机制。《精神分裂症通报》的这一期专门刊载了代表这一系列关于首发精神病的概念性和实证性研究工作的文章。最终目标是让该领域的研究人员建立一个网络，以加强概念和数据的共享，最终有可能开发联合数据库并开展合作研究。
