Xu, LiHuaZhang, TianHongZheng, LiNaLi, HuiJunTang, YingYingLuo, XingGuangSheng, JianHuaWang, JiJun2016-03-012016Xu, LiHua, TianHong Zhang, LiNa Zheng, HuiJun Li, YingYing Tang, XingGuang Luo, JianHua Sheng, and JiJun Wang. 2016. “Psychometric Properties of Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Version among Chinese Help-Seeking Individuals.” PLoS ONE 11 (2): e0148935. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148935. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148935.1932-6203http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:25658332Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ) and Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) have been used as a two-stage process for identifying subjects at clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis. The Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief version (PQ-B) contains 21 items derived from the PQ. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of PQ-B in a Chinese help-seeking outpatient sample and to explore which items can better predict CHR diagnosis by SIPS and future transition to psychosis. In our preliminary epidemiological study, 1461 patients from a pool of 2101 individuals (15–45 years of age) completed the two-stage process. In the present study, 239 (20%) people were randomly selected among the sample who met the initial PQ-B screening criteria but had no positive diagnosis on SIPS, as well as 72 individuals with negative results on both PQ-B and SIPS, 89 prodromal and 105 psychotic subjects, yielding a total of 505 participants. The internal consistency coefficient for the PQ-B was good, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.897. The concordant validity of PQ-B with SIPS dichotomized diagnosis of prodrome/psychosis versus no psychosis was 0.54. To ensure 80% or a higher sensitivity and a certain specificity, 7 and 24 were respectively set as the cutoff points for the PQ-B total score and distress score for Chinese help-seeking outpatients. A logistic regression model based on six PQ-B items could allow predicting the psychotic diagnosis on SIPS, with an accuracy of 65.8%. Prodromal individuals who scored higher on the 12th item of PQ-B (Do you worry at times that something may be wrong with your mind?) were less likely to convert to psychosis. PQ-B is a useful instrument for screening CHR subjects, but the cutoff score may be higher than that recommended by the author scores for help-seeking individuals in outpatient clinics. Some specific PQ-B items may have significant predictive power on dichotomized SIPS diagnoses and deserve special attention from researchers in future studies.en-USMedicine and Health SciencesMental Health and PsychiatryPsychosesHealth CarePatientsOutpatientsBiology and Life SciencesPsychologyPsychometricsSocial SciencesDiagnostic MedicinePrognosisMathematical and Statistical TechniquesStatistical MethodsRegression AnalysisPhysical SciencesMathematicsStatistics (Mathematics)Mental Health TherapiesPsychotherapyJournal Article2016-03-0110.1371/journal.pone.0148935