Project Summary

Researcher Name (Young Investigator 2006) of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, plans to study the role of stress on the evolution and onset of psychosis. This study will test a model of schizophrenia onset that suggests genetically at-risk and clinically vulnerable individuals are differentially sensitive to stress, and that degree of stress reactivity is associated with symptom severity, reduced cognition, and lower social functioning. In the proposed study, differences in reactivity to a laboratory-based behavioral stress challenge will be assessed in three groups of adolescents and young adults ages 16 to 25. The groups include: 1) individuals at genetic high risk for schizophrenia; 2) individuals at clinical high risk or prodromal for schizophrenia; and 3) age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers. Individual differences in stress reactivity will be related to degree of psychosis proneness and subtle symptoms of schizophrenia and impairments in cognition and social functioning. Results should help improve prediction of risk for transition to psychosis and of functional outcome, and provide support for the development and assessment of early, targeted psychosocial interventions to improve stress resiliency.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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