ABSTRACT
The early detection of and thus early intervention in schizophrenia in its initial prodromal stage prior to the first psychotic episode has become a key research area during the last decade. Thereby it is intended to prevent or at least to delay the outbreak of frank psychosis and to avoid the social decline or retardation of social advancement that takes place before the first psychotic episode (Häfner et al. 1995; McGlashan 1998). However, sure knowledge about the nature of the initial prodrome does not exist, and different models of patterns of changes in the initial prodromal phase of schizophrenia have been suggested (see Yung and McGorry 1996).
