Clinical and serotonergic predictors of non-affective acute remitting psychosis in patients with a first-episode psychosis.
OBJECTIVE
The study aimed to establish clinical predictors of non-affective acute remitting psychosis (NARP) and assess whether these patients showed a distinct serotonergic profile.


METHODS
First-episode never treated psychotic patients diagnosed of paranoid schizophrenia (n=35; 21 men and 14 women) or NARP (n=28; 15 men and 13 women) were included.


RESULTS
NARP patients showed significantly lower negative symptomatology, better premorbid adjustment, shorter duration of untreated psychosis, more depressive symptomatology and a lower number of 5-HT2A receptors than the paranoid schizophrenia patients. In the logistic regression, the four variables associated with the presence of NARP were: low number of 5-HT2A receptors; good premorbid adjustment; low score in the item 'hallucinatory behaviour' and reduced duration of untreated psychosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings support the view that NARP is a highly distinctive condition different from either affective psychosis or other non-affective psychosis such as schizophrenia, and highlight the need for its validation.
Arranz
B
B
Sant Joan de Deu, Serveis de Salut Mental, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. 24439bam@comb.es
San
L
L
Ramírez
N
N
Dueñas
R M
RM
Perez
V
V
Salavert
J
J
Corripio
I
I
Alvarez
E
E