Palau Youth Project, Ministry of Health, Koror, Palau.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2010 May;4(2):153-61. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7893.2010.00164.x.
This study was designed to identify early symptoms associated with the occurrence of psychosis during adolescence.
Participants were recruited in the Republic of Palau, an isolated island nation in Micronesia with a prevalence rate for schizophrenia of 1.99%. Diagnostic interviews were used to obtain reports of early and current symptoms from 112 genetically high-risk (GHR) and 208 genetically low-risk (GLR) adolescents (ages 16-23). Based on current psychotic symptoms, participants were sorted into three groups: non-clinical, at-risk/symptomatic risk and clinically symptomatic.
Multivariate analysis of variance revealed several between-group differences on rates of early symptoms. Most notably, youth who were in the GHR-clinically symptomatic group reported significantly higher rates of early marijuana use than GLR-clinically symptomatic youth, who were significantly more likely to report early symptoms of depression and behaviour disorders. In addition, several gender based differences in the link between early symptoms and adolescent onset psychosis were noted.
Findings are generally consistent with previous research on early indicators, though several unexpected findings suggest that results from this study may not be fully generalizable beyond this relatively isolated and culturally distinct Micronesian nation.
本研究旨在确定青少年期发生精神病的早期相关症状。
参与者招募于帕劳共和国，密克罗尼西亚的一个孤立岛屿国家，其精神分裂症的患病率为 1.99%。采用诊断性访谈，从 112 名遗传高风险（GHR）和 208 名遗传低风险（GLR）青少年（16-23 岁）中获得早期和当前症状的报告。根据当前的精神病症状，参与者被分为三组：非临床、有风险/症状风险和临床症状。
方差分析的多变量分析显示，在早期症状的发生率方面存在一些组间差异。最值得注意的是，处于 GHR-临床症状组的青少年早期使用大麻的比率明显高于 GLR-临床症状组，而 GLR-临床症状组更有可能报告早期抑郁和行为障碍症状。此外，还注意到早期症状与青少年期精神病发病之间存在一些基于性别的差异。
这些发现与早期指标的先前研究大致一致，但一些意外的发现表明，这项研究的结果可能无法完全推广到这个相对孤立和文化独特的密克罗尼西亚国家以外。
