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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1381864
This article is part of the Research Topic The Heterogeneity of Psychiatric Symptoms and Disorders View all articles

Harmonizing Early Intervention Strategies: Scoping Review of Clinical High Risk for Psychosis and Borderline Personality Disorder

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Department of Dynamic, Clinical Psychology and Health, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 2 Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
  • 3 Centre for Youth Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  • 4 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aims: To map studies assessing both clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) in clinical samples, focusing on clinical/research/preventive paradigms and proposing informed research recommendations. Methods: We conducted a PRISMA-ScR/JBIcompliant scoping review (protocol:https://osf.io/8mz7a) of primary research studies (crosssectional/longitudinal designs) using valid measures/criteria to assess CHR-P and BPD (threshold/subthreshold) in clinical samples, reporting on CHR-P/psychotic symptoms and personality disorder(s) in the title/abstract/keywords, identified in Web of Science/PubMed/(EBSCO)PsycINFO until 23/08/2023. Results: 33 studies were included and categorized into four themes reflecting their respective clinical/research/preventive paradigm: (i) BPD as a comorbidity in CHR-P youth (k = 20), emphasizing early detection and intervention in psychosis; (ii) attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS) as a comorbidity among BPD inpatients (k = 2) with a focus on hospitalized adolescents/young adults admitted for non-psychotic mental disorders; (iii) mixed samples (k = 7), including descriptions of early intervention services and referral pathways; (iv) transdiagnostic approaches (k = 4) highlighting "clinical high at risk mental state" (CHARMS) criteria to identify a pluripotent risk state for severe mental disorders. Conclusion: The scoping review reveals diverse approaches to clinical care for CHR-P and BPD, with no unified treatment strategies. Recommendations for Future research should focus on: (i) exploring referral pathways across early intervention clinics to promote timely intervention; (ii) enhancing early detection strategies in innovative settings such as emergency departments; (iii) improving mental health literacy to facilitate help-seeking behaviors; (iv) analysing comorbid disorders as complex systems to better understand and target early psychopathology; (v) investigating prospective risk for BPD; (vi) developing transdiagnostic interventions; (vii) engaging youth with lived experience of comorbidity to gain insight on their subjective experience; (viii) understanding caregiver burden to craft family-focused interventions; (ix) expanding research in underrepresented regions such as Codice campo modificato Africa and Asia, and; (x) evaluating the cost-effectiveness of early interventions to determine scalability across different countries.

    Keywords: Clinical high risk for psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder, Comorbidity, psychosis, Early Intervention, Transdiagnostic approach, Scoping review

    Received: 04 Feb 2024; Accepted: 29 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lo Buglio, Boldrini, Polari, Fiorentino, Nelson, Solmi, Lingiardi and Tanzilli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tommaso Boldrini, Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

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