PhD Scientific Days 2023

Mental Health Sciences - Posters N

Clinical, immunological and brain imaging investigation of first episode psychosis patients

Text of the abstract

Introduction
First episode psychosis (FEP) is the first manifestation of psychotic disorders lasting minimum one week, causing personal suffering and decreased functional outcome of patients. The early intervention in FEP is crucial. Published results from the first 5-10 years are promising about improving relapse prevention, functional outcomes and reducing mental health care costs, compared to treatment as usual.
Objectives
Our objective was to examine FEP patients at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, taking into consideration that different etiologies can cause similar psychotic symptoms. Our aim was to create a homogeneous sample and identify factors that can help in early differential diagnosis and therapy.
Methods
Male and female inpatients hospitalized at our department due to a first psychotic episode and consenting to participate were included, since 2019 October. Drug induced psychosis and organic background in the etiology of the psychotic episode were excluded. Duration of the research is 36 month, 24 months for recruiting patients and healthy controls, 12 month for analyzing data. The investigation includes detailed clinical, neuropsychological examination (baseline, 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th month) and immunological examinations, MRI (baseline and in the 24th month).
Results
Twenty-five patients were included. 10% of the patients were rehospitalized due to relapses. Neuropsychological tests (RBANS) indicate low average performance compared to normative sample. Using resting state fMRI second level analysis we found alterations in thalamo-cortical connectivity, although including healthy controls is still in progress.
Conclusions
Our FEP research, although limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, shows promising results that can help in better understanding of the underlying factors of psychotic disorders.