Children and adolescents at risk for psychosis: baseline imapirment of processing speed in converted group.

Poster B111, Tuesday, October%209, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom

Jordina Tor1,2, Montserrat Dolz1,2,4, Laia Portolés1,2, Anna Sintes1,2, Marta Pardo1,2, Olga Puig3,4, Elena De la Serna3,4,5, Daniel Ilzarbe3,5, Gisela Sugranyes3,4,5, Inmaculada Baeza3,4,5; 1Child and adolescent Mental Health Resarch Group. Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu. Barcelona, Spain., 2Child and adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology Department. Hospital Sant Joan de Déu of Barcelona. Spain., 3Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology. Hospital Clinic Universitari of Barcelona. Spain., 4Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, Spain., 5Institut Clinic of Neurosciences, CERCA-IDIBAPS. Hospital Clínic Universitari of Barcelona, Department of Psychiatry and Psychobiology, Health Sciences Division, University of Barcelona. Spain.

Background: Cognitive impairments were observed in young-adults at risk for psychosis who later developed a psychotic episode. Scarce studies were published of children and adolescent populations, despite the importance of this period in defining the neurodevelopmental model of psychosis. The aim of this study is to determinate baseline cognitive differences between adolescents at clinical high risk (CHR) who convert (CHR-P) or who did not convert (CHR-NP) to a psychotic disorder. Method: Multi-site, naturalistic and longitudinal sample of CHR help-seeking were recruited from two hospitals from Barcelona. Inclusion criteria were having at least one of the three CHR criteria (positive attenuated psychotic symptoms, brief limited psychotic symptoms or genetic risk syndrome) assessed by Structured Interview of Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS). Patients were clinically followed 18 moths. General Intelligence, logical verbal memory, verbal learning, visual memory, working memory, processing speed, visuospatial abilities, sustained attention and executive functioning were assessed by a comprehensive neuropsychological battery at baseline. Pair-wise differences were performed to show differences at baseline between CHR-P and CHR-NP. Results: A total of 70 patients were followed (23 CHR-P and 47 CHR-NP) and cognitive assessed at baseline. No differences in socio-demographic characteristics at baseline were founded between CHR-P and CHR-NP. No differences in general intelligence were observed. CHR-P show lower score in a coding task than CHR-NP at baseline (p=0.045). Conclusions: Processing speed was significantly impaired at baseline in CHR-P group compared to CHR-NP group, reinforcing the importance of taking into account cognitive variables as treatment target.

Topic Area: Ultra High Risk / Prodromal Research

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