OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of individuals with early sustained recovery following first episode psychosis. METHODS Individuals with a first episode psychosis were followed-up for ten years. Comparisons were made between those with Early Sustained Recovery and those with Other Course types. RESULTS Of 345 individuals, n=43 (12.5%) had Early Sustained Recovery. They were more l...

BACKGROUND First-episode psychosis is typically preceded by a prodrome in which there is deterioration in global and social functioning. AIMS To examine whether the duration of the prodromal phase influences grey and white matter volumes at the onset of psychosis. METHODS Eighty-two people were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging when they developed a first episode of psychosis. The du...

BACKGROUND There have been very few observational studies of drug and alcohol misuse in first-episode psychosis in the UK. METHOD Using an observational database of first episode psychosis in Northumberland, a county in Northern England, information on patients aged 16 to 36 years were collected at presentation and annual follow-up between October 1998 and October 2005. Patterns of drug and a...

BACKGROUND Earlier contributions have documented significant changes in sensory, attention-related endogenous event-related potential (ERP) components and θ band oscillatory responses during working memory activation in patients with schizophrenia. In patients with first-episode psychosis, such studies are still scarce and mostly focused on auditory sensory processing. The present study aimed t...

OBJECTIVE To compare baseline demographics and 10-year outcomes of a first-episode psychosis patient incidence cohort in order to establish whether current youth-focussed age-based criteria for early intervention services are justified by patient needs. The patients in this cohort were treated prior to the establishment of early intervention services. The study aimed to test the hypothesis that...

The epidemiology of first-episode psychosis is poorly understood because of the paucity of systematic studies, yet it constitutes the fundamental basis for understanding the disorder and the foundations on which clinical, biological, therapeutic, and long-term outcome studies are built. A particular need is to clarify the diagnostic breadth of first-episode psychosis and, on this basis, to unde...

MAIN RESULTS Prognosis: Women with a history of psychosis are at high risk of a psychiatric episode in the first year after childbirth (see table). Psychosis as a risk factor for post-natal depression: Women with a history of psychosis are more likely to have postnatal depression compared with age matched controls in the first year after childbirth (RR adjusted for active illness 2.04, 95% CI 1...

Up to now studies on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in psychosis have shown inconsistent findings. These inconsistencies have been often ascribed to confounding effects of long duration of illness and chronic treatment with psychotropic medications of the subjects studied (chronic psychosis). In the last years, several studies have focused on the study of subjects at their f...

CONTEXT Magnetic resonance imaging studies have identified hippocampal volume reductions in schizophrenia and amygdala volume enlargements in bipolar disorder, suggesting different medial temporal lobe abnormalities in these conditions. These studies have been limited by small samples and the absence of patients early in the course of illness. OBJECTIVE To investigate hippocampal and amygdala...

When we talk about psychosis and psychotic disorders, have in mind patients with disorganized thinking, mental retardation, delusions, other similar symptoms associated damage to the brain's normal functioning. Psychosis, however, is not only cause of dysfunction, abnormal functioning brain. The onset may be due psychological factors, stress one main factors. Psychological environmental factors...