The New York High-risk Project: Anhedonia, Attentional Deviance, and Psychopathology

Abstract

In the New York High-Risk Project (NYHRP) we followed subjects at risk for schizophrenic or affective disorders and low-risk controls from childhood to adulthood, with the goal of identifying early predictors of later schizophrenia-related psychopathology. In this article, we focus on two potential predictors: the Physical Anhedonia Scale administered in adolescence and the Attention Deviance Index obtained in childhood. Subjects of this report are 161 members of the NYHRP's first sample (sample A), who had scores on both attention and anhedonia and had followup clinical assessments in adulthood. We used a path analysis model and several separate regression analyses to examine the relationships of the parent diagnostic groups, attentional dysfunction, and anhedonia to each other and to each of three psychopathological outcomes: schizophrenia and schizophrenia-related psychoses, major affective disorder, and social isolation in nonpsychotic subjects. Subject groups did not differ in anhedonia scores but did differ in childhood attentional dysfunction, psychosis, and social isolation, all of which are more common in subjects at risk for schizophrenia. In these subjects at risk for schizophrenia, but not in the other two groups of subjects, childhood attentional dysfunction is related to anhedonia, social isolation, and possibly nonparanoid psychosis. Anhedonia is associated with social isolation and with psychosis in females. Several other gender effects are also noted.

Stress-Induced Dopamine Release in Humans at Risk of Psychosis: a [11C]Raclopride PET Study

“…Though the striatum is thought to be a critical region for DA dysfunction in schizophrenia, there may also be differences in frontal cortical DA systems that our method could not detect. Third, although our particular interest is in schizophrenia vulnerability, our personality measures of vulnerability are sensitive to risk for psychosis, including affective psychosis (Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993;Chapman et al, 1994). Increased DA release in response to stress may represent a risk factor for psychosis in general, rather than a risk factor for schizophrenia per se (Yui et al, 2004).…”

“…Individuals with elevated scores on the PerAb scale have an elevated risk of psychosis (Chapman et al, 1980(Chapman et al, , 1994, an elevated rate of schizophrenia in first-degree relatives (Lenzenweger and Loranger, 1989) and a myriad of cognitive and psychophysiological deficits that are associated with schizophrenia (Simons, 1982;Allen et al, 1987;Jutai, 1989;Lenzenweger, 1991;Simons and Giardina, 1992;Kwapil et al, 1996;Suhr, 1997;Nuchpongsai et al, 1999;Gooding et al, 2001). Elevated PhysAn scores in the adolescent offspring of schizophrenic patients are associated with increased rates of psychosis and poorer social adjustment in young adulthood (Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993;Freedman et al, 1998). Healthy individuals with elevated scores on the PhysAn scale also show many attributes of a high-risk population: they have an increased incidence of the cognitive, behavioral, and social abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, including impaired attention (Jutai, 1989;Wilkins and Venables, 1992;Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993), reaction time crossover (Simons, 1982), abnormal P300 amplitude (Miller, 1986), skin conductance nonresponsiveness (Dawson and Nuechterlein, 1984), and poorer social competence (Garnet et al, 1993;Blanchard et al, 1998).…”

“…Elevated PhysAn scores in the adolescent offspring of schizophrenic patients are associated with increased rates of psychosis and poorer social adjustment in young adulthood (Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993;Freedman et al, 1998). Healthy individuals with elevated scores on the PhysAn scale also show many attributes of a high-risk population: they have an increased incidence of the cognitive, behavioral, and social abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, including impaired attention (Jutai, 1989;Wilkins and Venables, 1992;Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993), reaction time crossover (Simons, 1982), abnormal P300 amplitude (Miller, 1986), skin conductance nonresponsiveness (Dawson and Nuechterlein, 1984), and poorer social competence (Garnet et al, 1993;Blanchard et al, 1998). Further, PhysAn scores may have a familial component as they are higher in schizophrenic patients and their relatives than controls (Katsanis et al, 1990;Clementz et al, 1991;Franke et al, 1993), and are higher in individuals with schizophrenia-related personality disorders who have a genetic loading of schizophrenia than in those without it (Thaker, 2000).…”

“…Recent research on schizotypy indicates that schizotypal symptoms divide into the same three factors found in schizophrenia, ie positive, negative, and disorganized (Reynolds et al, 2000;Suhr and Spitznagel, 2001). Here, we chose to focus on the positive and negative dimensions of schizotypy, since these have been associated in longitudinal studies with elevated rates of psychosis and social dysfunction (Erlenmeyer-Kimling et al, 1993;Chapman et al, 1994;Kwapil et al, 1997;Freedman et al, 1998). We identified positive and negative symptom schizotypy using the perceptual aberration (PerAb) and physical anhedonia (PhysAn) scales, respectively (Chapman et al, 1976(Chapman et al, , 1978.…”

Dissecting the genetic complexity of schizophrenia

“…42 The reason among the offspring of schizophrenic parents. 19 Two more recent prospective studies of large birth cohorts is that in the former case many markers are assayed simultaneously and in principle compete with one designed to address and test this prediction 20,21 found that patients destined to develop schizophrenia another, whereas in the latter case only one marker is being assayed (that marker previously implicated showed (as early as at the age of 4) significant deficits in a range of behaviors compared to their peers: solitary in an independent linkage study). play, reduced educational achievement, more anxiety, poor speech development and poor motor control.…”