Development and Validation of a Dynamic Risk Prediction Model to Forecast Psychosis Onset in Patients at Clinical High Risk

The prediction of outcomes in patients at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) almost exclusively relies on static data obtained at a single snapshot in time (ie, baseline data). Although the CHR-P symptoms are intrinsically evolving over time, available prediction models cannot be dynamically updated to reflect these changes. Hence, the aim of this study was to develop and internally validate a dynamic risk prediction model (joint model) and to implement this model in a user-friendly online risk calculator. Furthermore, we aimed to explore the prognostic performance of extended dynamic risk prediction models and to compare static with dynamic prediction. One hundred ninety-six CHR-P patients were recruited as part of the "Basel Früherkennung von Psychosen" (FePsy) study. Psychopathology and transition to psychosis was assessed at regular intervals for up to 5 years using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Expanded (BPRS-E). Various specifications of joint models were compared with regard to their cross-validated prognostic performance. We developed and internally validated a joint model that predicts psychosis onset from BPRS-E disorganization and years of education at baseline and BPRS-E positive symptoms during the follow-up with good prognostic performance. The model was implemented as online risk calculator (http://www.fepsy.ch/DPRP/). The use of extended joint models slightly increased the prognostic accuracy compared to basic joint models, and dynamic models showed a higher prognostic accuracy than static models. Our results confirm that extended joint modeling could improve the prediction of psychosis in CHR-P patients. We implemented the first online risk calculator that can dynamically update psychosis risk prediction.