Objective To study rates of relapse in remitted patients with first episode psychosis who either continued or discontinued antipsychotic drugs after at least one year of maintenance treatment.Design 12 month randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial.Setting Early psychosis outpatient clinics in Hong Kong.Participants 178 patients with first episode psychosis who had received at least one year of antipsychotic drug treatment between September 2003 and July 2006 and had no positive symptoms of psychosis.Interventions Patients received either maintenance treatment with quetiapine (400 mg/day) or placebo and were followed up for the next 12 months or until a relapse occurred.Main outcome measure Relapse assessed monthly and defined as re-emergence of psychotic symptoms (delusions, conceptual disorganisation, hallucinations, suspiciousness, and unusual thought content) according to predefined thresholds.Results 178 patients were randomised (89 to quetiapine and 89 to placebo). The Kaplan-Meier estimate of the risk of relapse at 12 months was 41% (95% confidence interval 29% to 53%) for the quetiapine group and 79% (68% to 90%) for the placebo group (P<0.001). Although quetiapine was generally well tolerated, the rate of discontinuation due to adverse or serious adverse events was greater in the quetiapine group (18%; 16/89) than in the placebo group (8%; 7/89) (relative risk 2.29, 95% confidence interval 0.99 to 5.28; χ 2 =3.20, df=1; P=0.07).Conclusion In a group of asymptomatic patients with first episode psychosis and at least one year of previous antipsychotic drug treatment, maintenance treatment with quetiapine compared with placebo resulted in a substantially lower rate of relapse during the following year.Trial registration Clinical trials NCT00334035. INTRODUCTIONPrevention of relapse is an important target in the treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic conditions.1 In first episode psychosis, more than 80% of patients treated achieve a full response in psychotic symptoms, 2 yet as many as 80% have a relapse within five years.3 Relapse compromises the outcome of psychotic disorders and is associated with substantial risks and costs. 4 With each relapse, the response of symptoms to treatment seems to take approximately 50% longer and is increasingly difficult to reestablish.5 Prevention of relapse is particularly important in the early course of illness, when symptoms and disabilities may be less entrenched. Strategies to improve adherence and minimise early relapses are major focuses in treatment programmes and clinical research.1 For chronic psychotic illness, maintenance antipsychotic drug treatment is efficacious for preventing relapse. The rate of relapse after discontinuation of drug treatment in chronic schizophrenia is approximately 53% compared with 16% for patients maintained on antipsychotic drugs.6 Atypical antipsychotic drugs may have some benefits compared with typical antipsychotics in preventing relapse in chronic illness.7 8 The biological mechanism underlying relaps...

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Aim: Psychiatric comorbidity frequently occurs with at-risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis. Its relationships with psychopathology, cognition and functioning, however, remain to be further clarified. We aimed to examine prevalence and correlates of psychiatric comorbidity, and its associations with psychosocial functioning and subjective quality-of-life (QoL) in a representative sample of Chinese ARMS individuals.Methods: One hundred ten help-seeking participants aged 15 to 40 years with ARMS were recruited from a specialized early psychosis service in Hong Kong. ARMS status was verified by comprehensive assessment of at-risk mental state (CAARMS).Comorbid Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition nonpsychotic psychiatric disorders at baseline were ascertained using diagnostic interview and medical record review. Assessments encompassing symptom profiles, psychosocial functioning, subjective QoL and a brief cognitive battery were conducted.Results: Forty-nine (44.5%) ARMS participants were diagnosed as having comorbid non-psychotic psychiatric disorders at baseline, primarily depressive and anxiety disorders. Binary multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender, more severe depressive symptoms, higher suicidality and poorer global cognitive functioning were independently associated with comorbid diagnosis status. ARMS participants with psychiatric comorbidity displayed significantly more limited extended social networks and poorer subjective QoL than those without psychiatric comorbidity. Conclusion:Comorbid disorders were frequently observed in Chinese ARMS individuals, and were linked to poorer cognition and higher suicide risk. Our findings

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Signatures of immune dysregulation as clinical biomarker for psychosis have remained unclear. We aimed to compare the Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of patients with acute non-affective first-episode psychosis (FEP) with healthy controls after accounting for emotional states. We also explored the associations of NLR with symptom severity, onset profile and cognitive functions. The NLR was enumerated from complete blood count taken within a week of assessment. All FEP patients were rated on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Clinician Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) with verbal memory and executive functions assessed with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Prevailing emotional state was measured with Beck Depression Inventory-II and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Out of seventy-nine consecutive FEP patients presenting to the study site, twenty-seven subjects were eligible and recruited. Twenty-seven age-/sex-matched controls were recruited. FEP patients had an NLR of 1.886 over the controls after accounting for scores on emotional states. The NLR of FEP patients was positively associated with CGI-S scores, PANSS positive symptom, disorganization and excitation scores. There was no significant correlation between NLR with the duration of untreated psychosis and cognitive performances. These findings support using NLR as a clinical biomarker in FEP, purporting further prospective study to measure NLR changes in the course of treatment.