The following is a summary of “Value of P300 amplitude in the diagnosis of untreated first-episode schizophrenia and psychosis risk syndrome in children and adolescents,” published in the October 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Zhang et al.

Researchers started a retrospective study investigating the characteristic brain electrophysiology changes of early psychosis in children and adolescents.

They compared P300 amplitude at multiple electrodes among children and adolescents with first-episode schizophrenia (FES, n = 48), psychosis risk syndrome (PRS, n = 24), and healthy controls (HC, n = 30), and employed Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis to assess the discriminative potential of P300 amplitude for identifying FES, PRS, and HC individuals.

The results showed that at the Cz, Pz, and Oz electrodes, the P300 amplitude in the FES group was markedly lower than in the HC group. The P300 amplitude at the Pz and Oz electrodes was significantly reduced in the prodromal group compared to the HC group. ROC analysis at the Pz electrode demonstrated the high discriminative value of P300 amplitude for distinguishing FES from HC individuals, with high sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC.

Investigators concluded that early visual P300 deficits in children and adolescents with early psychosis may be useful for early identification.

Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-05218-5