Screening of the College Students at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis in China: A Multicenter Epidemiological Study

Abstract

Background To investigate a 3-stage screening procedure and explore the clinical features of subjects at Clinical High Risk (CHR) for psychosis in a representative sample of Chinese college students. Methods An epidemiological survey of the prevalence of CHR syndrome in Chinese college students that was selected by stratified random sampling from Shanghai, Nanjing and Nanchang cities was done followed a 3-stage procedure. Participants was initially screened with the Prodromal Questionnaire-brief version (PQ-B), and whose distress score of PQ-B exceeded 24 would be invited to a telephone assessment using the subscale for positive symptoms of the Scale of Prodromal Symptoms (SOPS)/Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS). Lastly, participants who scored 3 or higher in any item of the subscale would be administered with the SIPS interview conducted by trained researchers to confirm the diagnosis of CHR syndrome. Results 23 063 college students completed the survey during September 2017 to October 2018. 72 students were diagnosed as CHR subjects, and the detection rate in the total sample was 0.3%. The peak age range for the first diagnosis of CHR was 17 to 20 years. 13 and 46 were set as the cut-off points of PQ-B total score and distress score to balance the greatest sensitivity and specificity. Binary logistic regression revealed that 5 items in PQ-B showed significant distinction for detecting CHR subjects. Conclusions The 3-stage screening method can be utilized in the detection of CHR subjects for psychosis in general population, during which delusional ideas, perceptual abnormalities and suspiciousness deserve great attention.