Aberrant Salience Inventory: A meta‐analysis to investigate its psychometric properties and identify screening cutoff scores

Abstract

IntroductionThe Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) is a useful tool to measure salience abnormalities among the general population. There is strong clinical and scientific evidence that salience alteration is linked to psychosis. To the present day, no meta‐analysis evaluating ASI's psychometric properties and screening potential has been published.Materials and MethodsPubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Embase were searched using terms including “psychosis,” “schizophrenia,” and “Aberrant Salience Inventory.” Observational and experimental studies employing ASI on populations of non‐psychotic controls and patients with psychosis were included. ASI scores and other demographic measures (age, gender, ethnicity) were extracted as outcomes. Individual patients' data (IPD) were collected. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the IPD.ResultsEight articles were finally included in the meta‐analysis. ASI scores differ significantly between psychotic and non‐psychotic populations; a novel three‐factor model is proposed regarding subscales structure. Theoretical positive predictive values (PPVs) and negative predictive values (NPVs) were calculated and presented together with different cutoff points depending on preselected specific populations of interest.DiscussionPPV and NPV values reached levels adequate for ASI to be considered a viable screening tool for psychosis. The factor analysis highlights the presence of a novel subscale that was named “Unveiling experiences.” Implications regarding the meaning of the new factor structure are discussed, as well as ASI's potential as a screening tool.

Introducing the ASI-NPI project: preliminary analysis of a study exploring the role of cannabis, salience alterations and youth in determining psychotic symptoms severity

“…In other words, if we exclude group effects, we could hypothesize that adolescents with salience alterations and exposure to cannabis might develop more severe psychotic symptoms than the adult counterpart with the same risk factors; it remains to be clari ed whether this correlates also with disease phase or not. There is an additional consideration: even if the ASI scores were level -statistically speaking -it is worth noting that only the adolescent cohort had scores higher than the cutoff point we identi ed in a previous meta-analysis (Merola et al, 2023), proving that more data is necessary to con rm or disprove this thesis. Moreover, as stated earlier, being this a preliminary study, the sample sizes are still quite underpowered.…”

“…We can ideally split the questionnaires we administered into three groups, each approaching the symptoms by which the patients were affected from a different perspective: The Italian version of the instrument has been proven to be reliable in identifying psychotic patients, whose scores were higher in comparison with those of the general population. Overall, a score of 14 or above seems to correlate with a higher probability of developing or presenting with psychotic symptoms, making it a valuable tool in psychosis proneness identi cation (Merola et al, 2023).…”

Transdiagnostic markers across the psychosis continuum: a systematic review and meta-analysis of resting state fMRI studies

“…Nonetheless, the lack of statistically significant evidence at the present moment should not be interpreted as proof of no difference between groups, nor of no continuum between psychosis spectrum disorders, as the methodological quality and quantity of studies encompassing these constructs may currently hinder a generalization of results. Despite the lack of definite findings, these results suggest that clinicians could complement standard practice with translational and transdiagnostic investigations, as a full diagnosis of either Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder may prove challenging in the acute setting (71), and research on ALFF/fALFF may eventually lead to the identification of a biomarker for psychosis. For these reasons, a multidisciplinary assessment may be crucial in understanding future improvement in the diagnosis and prognosis of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders, through the development of novel neuroimaging markers of disease.…”