Liberiamo il Futuro: first results of an Italian early detection project.

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are commonly endorsed in questionnaires in community and clinical populations, especially by adolescents. Within the early detection project “Liberiamo il Futuro” (LIF), the prevalence of attenuated psychotic-like experiences (APLEs) in a sample of help-seeking adolescents (11–18 years) and the correlation with age, functioning and risk status is explored. LIF aims to identify subjects at high risk for developing a psychosis according to the ultra-high risk (UHR) and the basic symptoms criteria among help-seeking adolescents (11–18 years) and young adults (18–30 years). To identify patients with an increased risk of psychosis, the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ-92) was administered. Patients endorsing 18 or more APLEs on its positive symptoms subscale were further assessed with the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes and the Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument, Child and Youth version. At the time of writing, 171 11–18-year-olds were assessed. Ninety-eight (41%) passed the PQ-threshold, and 82 were further interviewed. With great overlap between the symptoms, 20 adolescents (24%) reported UHR symptoms, 44 (54%) cognitive-perceptive basic symptoms (COPER) and 30 (37%) cognitive disturbances (COGDIS). APLEs are common in adolescents seeking help for mental problems. Since APLEs might index a risk for a much wider range of psychopathology than psychotic disorders only, more research is needed to understand when APLEs signal an incipient psychotic illness and which features are associated with a worse outcome. To this aim, basic symptoms may help to distinguish young people at risk for developing a psychotic disorder from those at risk for other psychopathological disturbances.