Social adversity, dopamine, cognition and psychosis (response to the neurobiological basis of mental health highlight)

精神疾病，如精神分裂症，是常见的破坏性疾病。精神病患者会出现妄想、幻觉以及思考和计划方面的困难。精神病的原因尚不清楚。然而，研究表明，大脑中化学信使多巴胺的水平会增加。其他研究表明，患者在计划和思考方面特别困难，这似乎与大脑前额叶部分的功能障碍有关。最后，长期暴露在社会压力之下的人患精神病的风险显著增加。到目前为止，这些因素主要是单独研究的。这个项目的一个关键目标是将有关多巴胺、前额叶脑功能和精神病的社会应激源的信息放在一起，并澄清它们之间的关系。我们计划通过使用大脑扫描来测量多巴胺功能和前额叶活动，并通过特定的研究访谈来测量社交压力源，从而实现这一点。我们将在非常容易患精神病的人身上这样做，并且在不久的将来有很高的患病风险。我们将在研究开始时评估这些人，并在12个月后再次评估，然后对他们进行跟踪，以找出谁随后会患上精神病。这将使我们能够找出哪些因素表明某人患有精神病的风险很高，以及这些因素随着时间的推移如何变化与精神病的发展有关。这将有助于及早识别易患精神病的人，并开发新的治疗方法，旨在防止高危人群较晚出现精神病。

Psychotic illnesses, such as schizophrenia, are common devastating conditions. Individuals with psychosis experience delusions, hallucinations and difficulties with thinking and planning. The cause of psychosis is not known. However, research shows that levels of the chemical messenger, dopamine, are increased in the brain. Other research indicates that patients have particular difficulty with planning and thinking, and this appears to be related to malfunction in the prefrontal part of the brain. Finally, the risk of developing psychosis is significantly increased in people who have been exposed to long-term social stressors. Until now, these factors have mainly been studied separately. A key aim of this project is to put information on dopamine, prefrontal brain function and social stressors in psychosis together and clarify the relationship between them. We plan to do this by measuring dopamine function and prefrontal activity using brain scanning, and measuring social stressors with specific research interviews. We will do this in people who are very vulnerable to psychosis, and have a high risk of developing the illness in the near future. We will assess these individuals at the start of the study and again after 12 months, then follow them up to find out who subsequently develops a psychotic illness. This will allow us to find which factors indicate that someone is at high risk of psychosis, and how changes in these factors over time are linked to the development of psychosis. This will help with the early identification of individuals who are vulnerable to psychosis and the development of new treatments designed to prevent the later onset of psychosis in people who are at high risk.