Gender differences in patients with first-episode psychosis in the Singapore Early Psychosis Intervention Programme.

AIMS

This study aimed to identify the gender differences among multi-ethnic, Asian patients with first-episode psychosis attending the Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP) in Singapore.

METHODS

Data for this study were derived from 533 (258 female, 275 male) patients aged 16-41 years old in the EPIP database. Socio-demographic data, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia (PANSS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores at baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year were obtained.

RESULTS

Significant gender differences were identified in terms of age, marital status, referral source, PANSS scores, GAF scores, remission and recovery over 1 year in the cohort. At service entry, female participants were older, more likely to be married and more likely to be referred from general practitioner/polyclinics (P < 0.0001). They showed better improvement over 1 year in PANSS positive, PANSS total, GAF disability and GAF total scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, female participants in this sample show better improvement than male participants. They showed a better course of illness over 1 year with one-third (33.3%) of female participants achieving recovery compared with approximately a quarter (23.6%) of male participants.