Duration of untreated psychosis and neuropsychological function in first episode psychosis.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) prior to first presentation was associated with cognitive function in first episode psychosis (FEP) subjects. We predicted that longer DUP would be associated with greater neurocognitive impairment.


METHODS
180 subjects with schizophrenia (and 93 subjects with Other Psychoses) performed a neurocognitive battery assessing IQ, verbal learning, working memory, visual learning and speed of processing. DUP was defined as the number of days between first onset of psychotic symptoms and first contact with psychiatric services.


RESULTS
Longer DUP was associated with impaired performance in verbal IQ (p=0.04), verbal learning (p=0.02), and verbal working memory (p=0.04) in FEP subjects with schizophrenia. These associations remained significant for verbal IQ when scores were corrected for age, gender, educational level and ethnicity.


CONCLUSIONS
Longer DUP is associated with poorer neurocognitive ability in schizophrenia subjects at time of first presentation. Since this was a cross-sectional study we can not tell whether longer DUP was a cause or a consequence of the poorer performance.
Lappin
Julia M
JM
Kings College Hospital Institute of Psychiatry, Division of Psychological Medicine, PO63, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, UK. j.lappin@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Morgan
Kevin D
KD
Morgan
Craig
C
Dazzan
Paola
P
Reichenberg
Abraham
A
Zanelli
Jolanta W
JW
Fearon
Paul
P
Jones
Peter B
PB
Lloyd
Tuhina
T
Tarrant
Jane
J
Farrant
Annette
A
Leff
Julian
J
Murray
Robin M
RM
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology