The university student who arrived at Romina Mizrahi’s office was frightened. His thoughts were off kilter; he believed his roommate might be tampering with his food.

The student’s paranoia alarmed Dr. Mizrahi, a research scientist and psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. For years, she’d been studying young people at risk of developing schizophrenia. Now, a 20-year-old student was sitting in front of her, aware that his irrational thoughts weren’t normal, but unsure of what they meant.

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