Defining the prodromal stages of severe mental disorders (SMD)

Currently, there is limited understanding of the early symptoms of severe mental disorders (SMD) such as psychosis, bipolar disorder and depression, before their onset. Using natural language processing apps, which automatically screen electronic health records for symptoms at time points prior to diagnosis, we will be able to characterise the structure of, time course of and relationships between symptoms using descriptive statistics and network analysis to define the prodromal stages of these conditions.