A similar picture is seen in the cingulate cortex. insufficient to make treatment recommendations for this early, relatively nonspecific illness phase. The next phase of research on the psychosis risk syndrome just now beginning, has moved to larger, multi-site projects to increase generalizability and to ensure that sufficiently large samples at true risk for psychosis are included. Emphasis in these CHMFL-BTK-01 emerging studies is on: 1) identification of biomarkers for conversion to psychosis; 2) examination of non-antipsychotic, neuroprotective and low-risk pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions; 3) testing of potentially phase-specific interventions; 4) examination of the relationship between treatment response during yhre of psychosis risk syundrome and prognosis for the course of illness; 5) follow-up of patients who developed schizophrenia despite early interventions and comparison of illness trajectories with patients who did not receive early interventions; 6) characterization of individuals with outcomes other than schizophrenia spectrum disorders, including bipolar disorder and remission from the psychosis risk syndrome, including false positive cases; 7) assessment of meaningful social and role functioning outcomes. While the research conducted to date has already yielded crucial information, the translation of CHMFL-BTK-01 the concept of a clinically identifiable psychosis risk syndrome into clinical practice does not seem justified at this point. Keywords:Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Risk Syndrome, Prodrome, Early Recognition, Early Intervention, Biomarker, DSM-V Despite advances in pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions and decades of research, schizophrenia continues to be one of the most severe and debilitating disorders in all of medicine (Hegarty et al. 1994). The chronic and relapsing illness course in most individuals with schizophrenia, greater treatment responsiveness during the first episode of psychosis, documented progressive grey matter decline during the early illness phases and retrospective accounts of prodromal, early illness signs and symptoms has led to the development of early recognition programs around the world (Olsen and Rosenbaum SCDO3 2006;Cannon et al. 2007;Cornblatt et al., 2003;de Koning et al. 2009). The field of research on the psychosis risk syndrome focuses on the identification and treatment of individuals at a clinical phase when first symptoms and/or impairments emerge. These might present as attenuated psychotic symptoms that are present below the threshold of full psychosis, brief and self-limiting psychotic symptoms, or a significant decrease in functioning in the context of a genetic risk for schizophrenia (Yung and McGorry 1996) as well as early subjective disturbances of cognitive processes and the perception of the self and the world (Klosterkoetter et al. 2001, Schultze-Lutter et al. 2008). This article will examine the data generated by the field of research on the psychosis risk syndrome to date, evaluate the relevance of the currently available findings for clinical practice, and identify areas where additional research is needed. Specifically, we will: review the theoretical and practical rationale for early identification and interventions during the pre-psychotic illness phase provide an overview of assessment methods and challenges review naturalistic studies of individuals with the psychosis risk sundrome discuss risk factors and putative biomarkers for conversion to psychosis summarize completed and ongoing intervention studies for people with the psychosis risk syndrome and identify areas that the field needs to address before research findings can be implemented in general clinical practice. == The Psychosis Risk Syndrome == Although prodromal symptoms of psychosis have long been recognized (Meares, 1959), the focus of attention has been most often on the florid symptoms of psychosis. Retrospective studies from the 1980’s redirected attention to the fact that patients with schizophrenia often showed early, CHMFL-BTK-01 less severe manifestations of the illness for days up to years (on average for five years) prior to onset of full psychosis (Hafner et al 1999,Hafner et al. 1995). These data and CHMFL-BTK-01 the development of reliable measurement tools to identify persons at risk for.