Clinical high risk for psychosis: gender differences in symptoms and social functioning

Abstract

The higher impairment in specific symptoms observed in male schizophrenia patients was also present in subjects at HR for psychosis. Further studies are required to determine whether these symptoms are gender-specific predictors of transition to psychosis and whether they warrant gender-specific interventions. The high propensity to depression in the present cohort, which was particularly pronounced in the male cohort compared with the general population, in conjunction with the observed increase in negative symptoms and functional impairment, should alert clinicians to the necessity for the identification and treatment of HR subjects, irrespective of the degree to which these features are associated with transition risk.

Negative symptoms in first‐episode psychosis: Clinical correlates and 1‐year follow‐up outcomes in London Early Intervention Services

“…Participants with higher levels of baseline NS were much more likely to be male, in accordance with previous literature in both crosssectional (Drake et al, 2016;Thorup et al, 2007) and follow-up FEP studies (Thorup et al, 2014). Although earlier investigations of gender-specific patterns of negative psychopathology have been contradictory (Ochoa, Usall, Cobo, Labad, & Kulkarni, 2012), most early psychosis studies are consistent with our findings (Köhler et al, 2009;Køster, Lajer, Lindhardt, & Rosenbaum, 2008;Thorup et al, 2007;Thorup et al, 2014;Willhite et al, 2008), including studies of individuals at risk for psychosis (Rietschel et al, 2017). In our study, severity of baseline NS was related to a younger age at onset of psychosis, which is consistent with most ( Drake et al, 2016;Üçok & Ergül, 2014), but not all (Schultz et al, 1997), previous findings.…”

Polish individuals with an at‐risk mental state: demographic and clinical characteristics

“…16 The educational activity of Polish individuals with ARMS contrasted with the mean SOFAS score, similar to the Global Assessment of Functioning or SOFAS scores of participants from other ultra-highrisk samples, reflecting the high level of psychosocial dysfunction. 16,27,31 This phenomenon reflects the relatively young age of the ARMS individuals in our study, the obligatory education in Poland up to the age of 16 years and the specific socioeconomic situation of the country, manifested through high unemployment, increased pressure on being educated and relatively easy access to education. Indeed, public education is free, and non-public schools and universities are numerous, inexpensive and often have low entry requirements.…”

“…In a similar study, 18% of men and 12% of women considered as ultra-high-risk individuals were currently in school, whereas 46% of men were unemployed. 31 Among the European Prediction of Psychosis Study participants, 18% were unable to work because of long-term disability. 27 Both samples, however, included older participants.…”

Negative schemata about the self and others and paranoid ideation in at‐risk states and those with persisting positive symptoms

“…Being a female is associated with lower paranoid ideation in the CHR sample. This finding may be explained by a general higher symptom impairment in men at CHR (Rietschel et al, ). Contrary to our assumption, inclusion of depression in the regression models did not change the results.…”