Goals

Early treatment for mental health conditions is linked to better long-term health, but few tools currently exist to identify people who are at early risk of developing schizophrenia. The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP®) SCZ program aims to generate tools that will fast-track the development of effective, early-stage treatments for people who are at risk for schizophrenia.

The AMP SCZ program goals include:

1. Developing tools for predicting individual outcomes
   The AMP SCZ program aims to identify measurable indicators of illness, known as biomarkers, that can be used to predict the likelihood of progression to psychosis and other health outcomes. These biomarkers will help researchers study how well treatments work for different groups of people.
2. Establishing a global research network
   The AMP SCZ program will establish an international research network focused on recruiting young people who are at clinical high risk for schizophrenia. The AMP SCZ program aims to recruit nearly 2,500 participants, ages 12-30, from 43 study sites around the world.The project’s large, international scope will ensure that AMP SCZ program findings apply broadly and are not specific to one place or one group of people.
3. Setting the stage for testing new preventive treatments
   The AMP SCZ program will create a research framework that can help researchers design better clinical trials, develop better approaches for measuring treatment response, and create better tools for detecting early-stage risk. This framework will provide a foundation for the development of faster, more effective treatments.
4. Creating an accessible data repository
   Research data from the AMP SCZ program will be available to the broader scientific community through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive. Providing access to AMP SCZ program data will allow researchers to translate findings into key tools and enable testing of therapies quickly and efficiently.