Andes network-studying early psychosis in Latin America
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Date
2019
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Abstract
Background Our knowledge about schizophrenia is largely based on studies in developed countries such as the United States, Western Europe or Japan. Their findings have pointed to several risk factors or modulators of response which unfortunately are more prevalent and stronger in low and middle-income countries. These include exposure to violence and trauma, poor perinatal care, or limited (and potentially late) access to healthcare. In this context, there is a pressing need to raise information from these countries about psychosis. We here present to the SIRS community the Latin American Consortium ANDES whose main aim is to study early psychosis within the Latin American context. Methods This is a descriptive study characterizing the groups and the cohorts of patients included that are part of the ANDES network. Results 15 different groups from 6 different countries from Latin America are part of the network, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. The network includes several early intervention clinical services, such as those in São Paulo and Santiago, who receive jointly around 5 new cases of first episode a week. ANDES also integrates three groups studying ultra-high-risk subjects (2 in São Paulo, 1 in Mexico). All groups have already acquired data from studies on first episode patients whose characteristics will be presented. Available data includes clinical and sociodemographic information from more than 1,000 patients, cognitive assessments using MATRICS from more than 500 patients, and 600 MRI T1 scans, DTI and resting-state fMRI (350 patients and 250 controls). Discussion ANDES is a unique opportunity to study psychosis in deprived settings which are frequently less represented in research publications. The inequality present in Latin America provides opportunities to study the effect of exposures to an adverse environment within this population.