Table 1 Clinical staging framework for mental health disorders (Hickie et al., [15])
From: Brain connectomes in youth at risk for serious mental illness: an exploratory analysis
Stage | Definition |
|---|---|
0 | No clinical symptoms |
Increased risk of disorder (family history); or developmental disorder | |
1a | Distress disorder |
No attenuated psychotic symptoms | |
Non-specific symptoms of anxiety or depression | |
Mild to moderate severity of symptoms | |
May include subjective/objective evidence of mild cognitive deficits | |
Evidence of only recent or mild impacts of illness on social, educational, or occupational functioning | |
May include those with earlier neurodevelopmental or attentional disorders | |
who now present with anxiety or depressive symptoms | |
1b | Attenuated syndromes |
Distress disorder plus at least one moderate to severe attenuated psychotic symptom (unusual thoughts, suspiciousness, perceptual abnormalities, grandiosity, disorganization) | |
Specific symptoms of anxiety or depression, brief hypomania, or brief psychotic phenomena | |
May meet criteria of psychosis-risk syndromes | |
May present with subthreshold manic symptoms | |
May include subjective/objective evidence of at least moderate cognitive change | |
Moderate to severe impact of illness on social, educational, or occupational functioning | |
2 | Discrete disorders |
Discrete episodes of psychosis, mania or severe depression | |
Full threshold disorder with moderate to severe symptoms and persistence over time | |
Major impact of illness on social, educational, or occupational functioning | |
Stages not relevant for this project | |
3a-3c | Incomplete remission to multiple relapses |
4 | Unremitting course of illness |