Predicting first episode psychosis in those at high risk for genetic or cognitive reasons

Structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with psychosis has advanced to the point where there are clear abnormalities at a group level between patients and groups of healthy controls, and suggestions of different patterns of abnormalities between groups of patients. A major area of research endeavour is being able to translate these group differences into clinically relevant predictions at an individual patient level. Here, we briefly summarize our main findings in cohorts at high risk of psychosis because they come from families in which several members have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or have educational impairments. We highlight consistent predictors of psychosis in those at high risk of schizophrenia for genetic or cognitive reasons, as compared with quite distinct profiles between those at genetic high risk of schizophrenia v. bipolar disorder on functional MRI during an executive language task. We also consider future research directions and ethical issues in the early diagnostic testing of people at high risk of psychosis. First published online 12 September 2012