Socio-psychological Factors Concerned to 15 Years Long-term Outcome of First Onset Schizophrenics

1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 06670966
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: OKAZAKI Yuji Nagasaki University, School of Medicine. Associate professor, 医学部, 助教授 (40010318)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OHTA Yasuyuki Nagasaki University, School of Allied Medical Sciences. Professor, 医療技術短期大学部, 教授 (50108304) ; NAKANE Yoshibumi Nagasaki University, School of Medicine. Professor, 医学部, 教授 (80039833)
• Project Period (FY): 1994 – 1995
• Keywords: Schizophrenia / Long-term outcome / Follow-up study / Socio-psychological factor / Structured interview / Inter-rater reliability

Research Abstract

This is a prospective long-term outcome study with the subjects of 107 first onset schizophrenic patients collected for an incidence study cohort. Assessment scales used structured interview have obtained adequate inter-rater reliability beforehand.
The main results of the study are as follows :
1.Morbidity outcome is 58 alive and 7 dead (a follow-up rate is 60.7%), and 42 drop-out (39.3%). The suicide (i.e., 4 cases and one suspected case) rate among the subjects is 6%-8%. Most of the drop-out cases have dropped out within 2 years after first contact, and follow-up rates were about 60% at the times of 2-year, 5-year, 10-year and 15-year follow-ups.
2.Regarding the symptomatological outcome, at least 30% of the subjects have recoverd. This supports the results of other reports.
3.Evaluating social outcome in general, 39.7% of them had "good" outcome and 55.2% "poor", and compared to the percentages given in other reports, they are about in the average.
4.Concerning long-term course, episodic course was seen in about 40% of the subjects, continuous in about 40% and in-between course in about 20%.
These results are also similar to the other reports. Looking at the symptomatological, social outcome and course evaluated in this study, it is reconfirmed that the outcome of schizophrenia is not necessarily poor and some cases have good outcome, while some cases keep a low-adjustment level showing psychotic symptoms continuously over a long period of time.
As a future study projects, the relationship between various clinical factors (e.x., onset type, duration of period from the onset to the start of treatment, nature of onset symptoms, duration of first episode, early-stage treatment, etc.), socio-psychological factors before and after the onset and course/outcome will be studied.