Individuals who develop schizophrenia often suffer long standing deficits.
All too often available treatments remain palliative and do not improve the
long-term course of illness. The neurobiological deficits associated with
the onset of schizophrenia may be most active and damaging in the early sta
ges of this life long illness, a fact which has shifted the focus of resear
ch and clinical work: toward the early or prodromal stages of this disorder
. Results from limited studies suggest that early intervention may lead to
a better prognosis. Early interventions that could delay or prevent the ons
et of psychotic illnesses have obvious public health implications and rely
on being able to identify true prodromal patients. The Structured Interview
for Prodromal Symptoms and the Scale of Prodromal Symptoms are assessment
instruments developed for operationally defining diagnosis and for quantita
tively rating symptom severity for patients prodromal for psychosis.