Longitudinal Long-term Study (10 Years) of the Sample of First Episode of Non-affective Psychosis: PAFIP

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disease that is still understood as a condition that limits the development of a normal life for the patient who suffers it and their families. The idea that only one third of patients have a good outcome is still in force, despite the lack of clinical and epidemiological longitudinal studies that have addressed this issue rigorously. Most studies that have established the poor prognosis of the disease have followed a cross-sectional design and are based on samples of patients undergoing treatment in healthcare devices and therefore represents an important bias. Based on clinical, cognitive, functional outcome and biomarkers studies (brain imaging) to medium term (3 years) we can establish that the particular idea of poor prognosis should be reconsidered. The development of longitudinal studies of first-episode patients in representative samples of a population and long-term it is of high value to shed light on the clinical course of the disease. The belief that there are factors determining the disease progression beyond the initial three years brings us to publish this study.

Given this background, our project's main objective is to know the evolution at 10 years of patients followed in the First Episode Psychosis Clinical Program (PAFIP). Our hypothesis is that a higher percentage of expected patients have a favorable outcome of the disease. Factors such as enhancing treatment completion, abstinence from drug use, return to work, the reduction of expressed emotion in families during the early years of the disease (at least 3 years of intensive intervention PAFIP) will have a positive impact on the evolution of patients on long-term (10 years). Our hypothesis defends the existence of certain factors as independent risk factors for poor clinical and functional outcome of patients who should be known for establishing intervention strategies that attempt to mitigate their impact on the quality of life of patients and their families.