"This is the first step towards being able to use brain imaging to deliver real benefits to patients affected by psychosis," says Paola Dazzan King, who co-led the study.
He said this could in the future cause a reliable way to predict how patients will develop the disease, allowing the doctor to provide the best care to those most in need and avoid giving a course length of antipsychotic drugs for people with these forms only very mild psychosis.
Psychosis is a condition that affects people's minds, changing how they think, feel and behave. It can also be accompanied by delusions and hallucinations.