Duration Of Untreated Psychosis Among Patients With Schizophrenia – Change Over Time Study

BACKGROUND: Duration of untreated psychosis refers to the time elapsing between onset of psychosis and treatment initiation. The fact that schizophrenia generally begins in the late adolescence/adulthood, that it often remains untreated for a long time before being recognized and treated, and that it frequently shows a chronic, recurrent and disabling course, dramatically impact on the relational and functional life of patients and care givers. For this reason, the first episode of psychosis, considered as the early stage of schizophrenia, is classically viewed as a critical period. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1) To estimate the duration of untreated psychosis and its variation over the years. 2) To determine possible correlation between duration of untreated psychosis and other independent variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective case record study. Data is collected from medical records department of a tertiary care psychiatric hospital, every five years starting from 1995 to 2020 with a sample size of 50 each year. The data is entered in a data collection sheet. The duration of untreated psychosis and its variation over the years has been estimated. Multivariate analysis to look for possible correlation between duration of untreated psychosis and other independent variables like sociodemographic details, predominant presenting symptoms, presence of aggression and mode of onset of symptoms has been done. RESULTS: The mean duration of untreated psychosis shows a decreasing trend over the years from 1995 to 2020. Most common variables correlating with shorter DUPs include positive symptoms, presence of aggression and male gender. CONCLUSION: Various factors could be attributable to this reduction in duration of untreated psychosis including increasing in awareness about mental health in general population, inception of district mental health programs and reduction in stigma towards mental health. Yet, the present DUP is higher when compared with developed countries. REFERENCES: 1) Prospective study of duration of untreated psychosis and outcome of never-treated patients with schizophrenia in India Jagadisha Thirthalli 1, Naveen Kumar Channaveerachari, Doddaballapura K Subbakrishna, Linda B Cottler, Mathew Varghese, Bangalore N Gangadhar; 2) An exploratory evaluation of predictors of duration of untreated psychosis in first-episode psychosis in lower income patients Ankita Mishra 1, Abha Bang Soni 2, Maithili S Umate 3, Chittaranjan Andrade 4.