14‐year outcome in early schizophrenia

Abstract

Of 45 first admission schizophrenics from 1963, an incidence by first admission group for northern Alberta, 43 were followed-up 14 years later. Based on these figures the expectancy was found to be 0.49%. The proportion of patients who were married was less than expected in comparison with the general population, but amongst the married, fertility was probably comparable to the population's. At follow-up about half the patients were managing well with little or no disability, one quarter had moderate to marked disability and the remainder were socially, psychiatrically and occupationally disabled. From the time of first admission, patients had spent an average of 15% of their time in hospital and lost 28% of the total time due to psychiatric disability.

A systematic review of the incidence of schizophrenia: the distribution of rates and the influence of sex, urbanicity, migrant status and methodology

“…Thirty seven discrete-core studies report rates only for persons [31,33,45-49,55-57,59,61,65,71,73,75,76,78,79,85,86,88,91,93-96,99,103,104,107,112,114,121,124-126,180,190], 13 report rates only for males and females [41,50,52,53,67,74,82,102,111,116,123,188,189], and 18 studies report rates for persons, males, and females [13,51,54,58,60,69,70,72,77,80,83,84,92,97,98,100,101,106]. …”

“…The rate ratio curve is normally distributed. While there were nine studies with rate ratios less than one [13,41,51,60,69,70,72,83,106,111], over 84% of rates lie above one, with a median value (10% to 90% quantiles) of 1.40 (0.9, 2.4). In a random-effects model for the logarithm of the rates, the sex-difference is significant ( F 1,30 = 76.8, p < 0.001).…”

Improving Reliability of the Assessment of the Life Course of Schizophrenia

“…A detailed description of the methodology used at the inception of the study as well as the findings at 10-and 14-year follow-ups have been reported by Bland et al 8,9,15,16 Ethics approval was received from Alberta Hospital Edmonton and Alberta Hospital Ponoka (the 2 institutions initially involved in treating the patients) and from the University of Alberta.…”

“…Indicators were scored below 1 if they fell within the definition of prodromal symptoms and behaviours, such as hints of positive signs (illusions, magical thinking, ideas of reference), moodiness, cognitive problems, and social withdrawal. The ratings were made by one author who had interviewed each patient for the 10-and 14-year follow-up studies 8,15 and, for our study, had interviewed each patient who was alive at the close of the 34-year follow-up. Additional information was systematically collected from hospital files, treatment records, and interviews with family members.…”

“…Among these, 131 people were examined in follow-up studies at either 10 8,9 or 14 years, 15,16,22 with only 3 lost to the subsequent 1997 follow-up. Thus the sample was comprised of 128 people (68 males and 60 females) who were followed for the 34 years through to 1997 or until death if that occurred prior to the end of the study period.…”