Exploring the clinical relevance of a dichotomy between affective and non-affective psychosis: Results from a first-episode psychosis cohort study.

Defining diagnosis is complex in early psychosis, which may delay the introduction of an appropriate treatment. The dichotomy of affective and non-affective psychosis is used in clinical setting but remains questioned on a scientific basis. In this study, we explore the clinical relevance of this dichotomy on the basis of clinical variables in a sample of first-episode psychosis patients. We conducted a prospective study in a sample of 330 first-episode psychosis treated at an early intervention program. Affective and non-affective psychosis patients were compared on premorbid history, baseline data, outcomes and course of symptoms over the 3 years of treatment. Affective psychosis patients (22.42%) were more likely to be female, and had a shorter duration of untreated psychosis. The longitudinal analyses revealed that positive symptoms remained higher over the entire follow-up in the non-affective sub-group. A higher degree of variability of manic symptoms and a significantly better insight after 6 months were observed in the affective sub-group. No difference was observed regarding depressive and negative symptoms. At discharge, only the environmental quality of life and insight recovery were better in affective psychosis. Our study suggests that despite marginal differences at baseline presentation, these sub-groups differ regarding outcome, which may require differentiation of treatment and supports the utility of this dichotomy

Subtyping based on premorbid profile: A strategy to personalize treatment in first-episode affective psychosis.

Premorbid history may have a major influence on the way patients cope with the onset of psychosis. This issue has been widely studied in the context of early intervention in schizophrenia but considerably less is known regarding affective psychosis. Our first goal was to investigate if subgroups could be identified among affective psychosis patients based on premorbid factors. Our second goal was to compare these subtypes according to the evolution of mood symptoms and outcomes at the end of the program. We conducted a 3-year prospective study on a sample of 74 adults aged 18-35 with a first episode of affective psychosis. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to reveal distinct exploratory subgroups within affective psychosis patients. Three distinct subgroups could be distinguished. One with later onset of psychosis mainly including women with more severe depressive symptoms in the first 6 months contrasting with two other subgroups with more severe manic symptoms all along the follow-up and earlier onset of psychosis, with or without many serious antecedents. The subgroup with many serious antecedents was more likely to require several hospitalizations, less likely to achieve recovery, especially regarding professional integration and return to premorbid general functioning. This study provides further evidence of poor functional recovery in the early phase of affective psychosis and shows that premorbid characteristics allow the identification of subgroups with distinct outcome which may require specification of treatment

Formulation de cas dans la psychose débutante : Quels outils pour le travail en équipe? [Case Formulation in Early Psychosis: What are the Tools for Teamwork?]

Nous présentons d’abord brièvement le programme TIPP et les concepts généraux de la prise en charge précoce dans la psychose débutante. Un des objectifs de l’intervention dans la phase précoce des troubles psychotiques est notamment de proposer des soins spécifiques adaptés à cette phase de la maladie. En début de prise en charge, l’équipe de soins et en particulier le gestionnaire de cas (case manager), chef d’orchestre de la prise en charge, sont confrontés à une quantité importante d’information dont il faut dégager les lignes de forces pour mettre en place une prise en charge adaptée. Cet article propose un modèle qui peut constituer un outil de travail précieux pour les équipes travaillant dans l’intervention précoce pour faire émerger une formulation de cas et synthétiser les situations cliniques des patients, en extraire une histoire qui fasse sens et ainsi faciliter la mise en place d’un projet thérapeutique

Internal and Predictive Validity of the French Health of the Nation Outcome Scales: Need for Future Directions.

The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) is a widely used measure of health and social functioning of people with mental illness. The goals of this study were to verify the internal validity of the one factor and several four-factor scoring structures and to evaluate the predictive validity of HoNOS items with regards to duration of hospitalization, probability of readmission in the following year and time before readmission. 6175 hospital stays at the department of psychiatry of Lausanne University Hospital were screened and the first HoNOS of each patient was taken into account (N = 2722). Data were analyzed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the predictive validity of HoNOS items was evaluated with two approaches: item level regressions and latent class analysis (LCA). CFA indicated that the suggested factor structures were not supported by the data. Predictive validity of the 12 items was weak but LCA revealed five distinct and meaningful profiles that were related to length of stay or readmission. HoNOS may be more adapted to the evaluation of patients case-mix rather than to the individual level and concepts such as predictive validity may be more appropriate than internal validity to guide its use

Le concept de staging a-t-il changé la prise en charge de la schizophrénie ? [Has the concept of staging modified treatment of schizophrenia yet ?]

The concept of staging is applied in medicine since many years, in order to better adapt treatment to patients' needs. Some authors have suggested one should also apply this concept to psychiatric disorders. If this approach seems to make sense, concrete progress in the domain are still limited. It is in the field of psychosis that most development have occurred, in the favorable context of early intervention programs. Some very detailed models have recently been proposed where successive stages of psychotic disorders are defined and corresponding treatment options are proposed. However, the limited reliability of clinical diagnoses systems and the absence of biomarkers allowing a more objective delineation of these various stages still hampers the concrete application of such strategies. Despite these limitations, the staging concept has already started to modify the mental health offer, especially for adolescents and young adults, for example through the development of the Headspace centers in Australia and other countries. These centers constitute accessible entry point for help seekers with mental health issues where treatment is defined according to the stage of illness. If such programs seem promising, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of psychiatric disorders seems important in order to facilitate the identification of stages and define the nature of the treatment needed for each of them, considering such knowledge has been the crucial for the development of the staging model in somatic disorders

Patients participating to neurobiological research in early psychosis: A selected subgroup?

Selection bias could be an important limiting factor in psychiatric neurobiological research. The study aim was to compare, within an early psychosis program, patients who agreed to participate to neurobiological research with patients who refused. 284 patients with early psychosis were assessed at baseline on a large set of socio-demographic and clinical variables and were followed-up over 36 months. There were no differences between groups, except regarding forensic/psychiatric history, lifetime substance abuse and social-occupational level during follow-up. While patients participating to neurobiological research seem representative of our clinical cohort, the few differences identified may deserve attention

Dynamics between insight and medication adherence in first-episode psychosis: Study of 3-year trajectories.

While specialized early intervention programs represent the gold standard in terms of optimal management of first-episode psychosis (FEP), poor medication adherence remains a predominant unmet need in the treatment of psychosis. In this regard, an interaction between insight and adherence in FEP patients has been hypothesized but has been challenged by multiple pitfalls. Latent profile analysis and trajectory modeling techniques were used to evaluate insight and adherence of 331 FEP patients engaged at the beginning, middle, and end of a 3-year specialized early psychosis program. A Bayesian model comparison approach was used to compare scores of clinical, functional, and socioeconomic outcomes at the end point of the study. Nearly one-third of the patients maintain a high level of insight and adherence during the entire program. At the end of the 3-year follow-up, more than three-quarters of patients are considered adherent to their medication. Patients with low levels of insight and adherence at the beginning of the program improve first in terms of adherence and then of insight. Furthermore, patients with high levels of insight and adherence are most likely to reach functional recovery and to experience an increase in environmental quality of life. Latent FEP subpopulations can be identified based on insight and adherence. Medication adherence was the first variable to improve, but a gain in insight possibly plays a role in the reinforcement of adherence