Temporal relationship between onset of positive and negative symptoms in the course of attenuated psychotic illness.

• Subthreshold positive symptoms begin in late childhood. • Positive symptoms emerge at a significantly younger age than negative symptoms. • There was no onset age difference between those who did and did not develop psychosis. Research in individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis has traditionally focused on the relationship between the severity of positive and negative symptoms and development of syndromal psychosis. In this study, we examined the temporal order of emergence of positive and negative symptoms in 116 CHR individuals who met criteria for the Attenuated Positive Symptom Syndrome defined in the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes (SIPS). We found that positive symptoms emerged at a significantly younger age than negative symptoms with no significant differences between converters and non-converters. These findings may provide important information about the temporal phenomenology of CHR symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]