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Abstract
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We appreciate the reflections on our Article. We agree with Michele Poletti and Andrea Raballo that the developing motor system plays a salient and important role in the development of psychosis and that our findings of impaired motor development in childhood strengthen the predictive models for psychosis development. Future research should focus on the mechanism behind impaired motor development and the relation to psychosis, examining: the motor brain system, the neurophysiology, motor stimulation and motor training, and the genetic and environmental influences affecting the developing motor system.
Poletti and Raballo contextualise the findings within the alterations of collateral discharge leading to sensorimotor dysintegration and subsequently motor impairment, possibly interfering with the development of the embodied self and associated with distortion of subjective experiences, which might be involved in the trajectories leading to psychosis. This hypothesis is noteworthy and could influence the exploration of what happens during infancy and childhood, as well as the facilitation of healthy development, with early interventions addressing motor development.
As Vishal Verma and colleagues rightly point out, familial high-risk families have multiple socioeconomic disadvantages. However, the mental illness also affects the socioeconomic status because mental health problems often result in a lower educational level and loss of income. We thus consider socioeconomic status as a mediating factor on the pathway between high-risk status and outcome, and poor socioeconomic status as a consequence of the parental mental illness. Adjusting or matching for socioeconomic status would be to overadjust for the effect and the real difference in consequences of mental illness, and create a control group not reflecting an average Danish family...
Language: en |