p class="article">LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. study says youth who are going to develop psychosis can be identified before their illness becomes full-blown up to 80 percent of the time.
Knowing the combination of risk factors can help scientists predict who is likely to develop the illnesses with the same accuracy that other kinds of risk factors can predict major medical diseases, such as diabetes, the National Institute of Mental Health said Monday in a release.
The research was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Researchers said combinations of factors that predicted psychosis included deteriorating social functioning; a family history of psychosis combined with recent decline in ability to function; an increase in unusual thoughts; an increase in suspicion/paranoia and past or current drug abuse.
"When teens have a dive in grades or drop out of the school band, and it happens against a backdrop of family history of schizophrenia and recent troubling changes in perception -- like hearing non-distinct buzzing or crackling sounds, or seeing fleeting images that disappear with a second glance-- more often than not it indicates that psychosis is fairly imminent," lead researcher Tyrone D. Cannon of the University of California Los Angeles said.
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