Work

The Critical Need for Help-Seeking Controls in Clinical High-Risk Research

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Despite rapidly growing knowledge of the clinical high-risk (CHR) state for psychosis, the vast majority of case-control studies have relied on healthy volunteers as a reference point for drawing inferences about the CHR construct. Researchers have long recognized that results generated from this design are limited by significant interpretive concerns, yet little attention has been given to how these concerns affect the growing field of CHR research. We argue that overreliance on healthy controls in CHR research threatens the validity of inferences concerning group differences, hinders advances in understanding the development of psychosis, and limits clinical progress. We suggest that the combined use of healthy and help-seeking (i.e., psychiatric) controls is a necessary step for the next generation of CHR research. We then evaluate methods for help-seeking control studies, identify the available CHR studies that have used such designs, discuss select findings in this literature, and offer recommendations for research.

Source: Clinical Psychological Science

DOI: 10.1177/2167702619855660

Authors: Zachary B. Millman, James M. Gold, Vijay A. Mittal, Jason Schiffman

Institutions: University of Maryland, Baltimore County, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Northwestern University, Northwestern University

Language: English

Topic: Schizophrenia research and treatment

Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health