Dutch Prediction of Psychosis Study

The Dutch Prediction of Psychosis Study (DUPS) is a collaboration of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam (AMC) and the University Medical Center in Utrecht (UMC). The main objectives are:

1. Pathways to care: the description of the ways subjects at risk for psychosis get access to the health care system and the detection of obstacles to adequate treatment
2. Prediction: the systematic multi-level assessment of predictors of the transition to a first psychotic episode in subjects at risk for psychosis
3. Disability: the description of disabilities, deficits and needs in prodromal individuals
4. Intervention: the description of the therapeutic and preventive interventions applied to prodromal individuals

While the same fundamental principles (e.g. inclusion criteria) are applied in both centers, additional instruments or paradigms are added in the separate centers according to specific interests, expertise and setting.

Our specific interest is in the social cognition and social functioning of prepsychotic individuals. Therefore, in addition to the subjects that are at high risk for psychosis according to the DUPS inclusion/exclusion criteria we are including another group of subjects that is at elevated risk for psychosis, namely subjects who have a Multiple Complex Developmental Disorder (MCDD) which is a subtype of the pervasive developmental disorders.

The study is a prospective longitudinal field-study with repeated measures to monitor subjects at high risk for psychosis.