School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2011 Aug;5(3):242-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-7893.2011.00260.x. Epub 2011 Mar 30.
The aims of this study were to describe the relationship between ethnicity and severity of baseline symptomatology in a sample of Asian individuals with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorder, and to determine if ethnicity predicts severity of symptomatology independent of gender, duration of untreated illness, premorbid functioning, and age of illness onset.
This descriptive study included all Chinese, Malay and Indian individuals consecutively admitted into an early intervention programme for treatment of first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Comparisons of mean scores among the three ethnic groups were performed using analysis of variance, while chi-squared tests were used to compare proportions. Subsequent pair-wise comparisons were performed with Bonferroni corrected statistic to examine specific ethnic group differences. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to identify factors significantly associated with the severity of different clinical dimensions of schizophrenia measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
The analyses involved 503 individuals. The mean PANSS scores were significantly different between the ethnic groups across the PANSS subscales. A post-hoc analysis showed that Malays scored significantly higher than Chinese did across the PANSS subscales. Malays also scored significantly higher than Indians did on the negative scale and the general psychopathology scale. Being Malay compared with Chinese consistently predicted more severe positive, negative and general psychopathology symptoms.
The results indicated that the severity of baseline symptomatology of individuals with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders differed by ethnicity. Premorbid functioning appears to act as a potential mediator of the effects of ethnicity on the severity of psychotic symptoms.
本研究旨在描述首发精神分裂谱系障碍亚洲个体的种族与基线症状严重程度之间的关系，并确定种族是否能独立于性别、未治疗疾病持续时间、病前功能和发病年龄预测症状严重程度。
本描述性研究纳入了连续进入早期干预计划治疗首发精神分裂谱系障碍的所有华人、马来人和印度人个体。采用方差分析比较三组间的平均得分，采用卡方检验比较比例。随后采用 Bonferroni 校正统计进行两两比较，以检查特定种族群体差异。采用多元回归分析确定与使用阳性和阴性症状量表（PANSS）测量的不同精神分裂症临床维度严重程度显著相关的因素。
分析共涉及 503 名个体。PANSS 各分量表的平均分在不同种族间存在显著差异。事后分析显示，马来人在 PANSS 各分量表上的得分均显著高于华人。马来人在阴性量表和一般精神病量表上的得分也显著高于印度人。与华人相比，马来人始终预示着更严重的阳性、阴性和一般精神病症状。
结果表明，首发精神分裂谱系障碍个体的基线症状严重程度存在种族差异。病前功能似乎是种族对精神病症状严重程度影响的潜在中介因素。
