Background: Climate change represents a serious threat to human health, including mental health, due to both the traumatizing effects of extreme climate events and the psychological effect of worry about climate change. Objectives: This scoping review aims to search the literature for original research investigating mental health and climate‐related negative emotions in young people. Findings will help to understand the current landscape, gaps in the literature, and provide recommendations for future youth mental health research and practice.Methods: A scoping review of the literature examining negative emotions associated with climate change in young people was undertaken. Studies published prior to March 2022 were included if they examined mental ill‐health (e.g., symptoms of depression or anxiety) or negative emotions (e.g., distress, worry, concern) associated with the threat of climate change.Results: Of 3939 articles screened, 26 met the inclusion criteria. Together, studies show that young people are worried about climate change. Negative emotions about climate change were correlated with symptoms of mental ill‐health. Studies also explored coping strategies young people use to manage their distress caused by climate change.Discussion: The limited literature in this area indicates a key gap in youth mental health research. While available evidence suggests that young people are concerned about climate change, more research is needed on the relationship between climate‐related negative emotions and mental ill‐health. Clinicians should assess for and address climate‐related negative emotions in young people. Mental health leaders are urged to advocate for actions to mitigate the mental health impact of climate change.

Aim: To harmonize two ascertainment and severity rating instruments commonly used for the clinical high risk syndrome for psychosis (CHR‐P): the Structured Interview for Psychosis‐risk Syndromes (SIPS) and the Comprehensive Assessment of At‐Risk Mental States (CAARMS).Methods: The initial workshop is described in the companion report from Addington et al. After the workshop, lead experts for each instrument continued harmonizing attenuated positive symptoms and criteria for psychosis and CHR‐P through an intensive series of joint videoconferences.Results: Full harmonization was achieved for attenuated positive symptom ratings and psychosis criteria, and modest harmonization for CHR‐P criteria. The semi‐structured interview, named Positive SYmptoms and Diagnostic Criteria for the CAARMS Harmonized with the SIPS (PSYCHS), generates CHR‐P criteria and severity scores for both CAARMS and SIPS.Conclusions: Using the PSYCHS for CHR‐P ascertainment, conversion determination, and attenuated positive symptom severity rating will help in comparing findings across studies and in meta‐analyses.

A high proportion of individuals deemed at elevated risk for psychosis will actually never progress to develop the illness. Pharmaceutical intervention may not be necessary in these cases, and may in fact be damaging depending on the invasiveness of the treatment strategy. This highlights the need for biomarkers that are better able to reliably differentiate between at-risk individuals who will subsequently transition to psychosis and those who will not. Low glutathione (GSH) levels have been observed in schizophrenia and in patients with first-episode psychosis. The aim of this study was to determine the predictive value of erythrocyte GSH levels on the transition to psychosis in individuals at risk of developing the illness. Erythrocyte GSH levels were measured in 36 at-risk individuals, 15 of whom had transitioned to psychosis at the 7-year follow-up. Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that transition to psychosis at the 7-year time point was significantly associated with low GSH levels at baseline. The area under the receiving operating characteristic curve was 0.819, indicating that GSH can be considered a good predictor of outcome. Although these results need to be replicated, adding the criterion ‘low erythrocyte GSH’ to the set of criteria used to identify individuals at risk of psychosis may be indicated.

There is evidence to suggest that people with established psychotic disorders show impairments in the mismatch negativity induced by a frequency-deviant sound (fMMN), and that these impairments worsen with the deterioration of psychotic symptoms. This study aimed to test whether individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis show pre-morbid impairments in fMMN, and if so, whether fMMN continues to deteriorate with transition to psychosis. fMMN was recorded in a cohort of UHR individuals (n=42) and compared to healthy controls (n=29). Of the 27 UHR participants who returned for a second EEG session, six participants had transitioned to psychosis by 12-month follow-up (UHR-T) and were compared to the 21 participants who did not transition (UHR-NT). fMMN amplitude was significantly reduced, relative to healthy controls, in the UHR cohort. Furthermore, UHR-T individuals showed a significant decrease in fMMN amplitude over the period from baseline to post-transition; this reduction was not observed in UHR-NT. These results suggest that fMMN is abnormal in UHR individuals, as has repeatedly been found previously in people with established psychotic disorders. The finding that fMMN impairment worsens with transition to psychosis is consistent with the staging model of psychosis; however, caution must be taken in interpreting these findings, given the extremely small sample size of the UHR-T group.