Baccaredda Boy Ottone, Merola Giuseppe Pierpaolo, Patti Andrea, Bozza Bernardo, Flaccomio Dario, Faldi Marco, Pitt Giulia, Papini Luca, Pecoraro Vincenzo, Noschese Ilaria, Di Matteo Elisa, Brugnolo Dario, Ricci Camilla, Ballerini Andrea, Mauceri Francesco, Tavano Simone, Peroni Giulio, Ciabattini Sara, Gori Sara, Pisano Tiziana, De Cesaris Francesco, Cohen David, Ricca Valdo
Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Careggi Firenze, Florence, Italy.
Hospital of Prato, Prato, Italy.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2025 Jul 22;19:1614730. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1614730. eCollection 2025.
The study aims to evaluate symptomatic differences through psychometric tools comparing patients in the early stages of psychotic development with those exhibiting a more established symptomatology. Our hypothesis was that the early phase in adolescent patients is accompanied by quantitatively and qualitatively distinct symptomatology compared to adults.
We assessed 116 participants-consisting of 14 to 65 years old patients with psychotic or mood symptoms-using psychometric tools and a clinical interview. The tools explored psychotic, depressive and anxiety dimensions, to provide a multifaceted assessment of the recruited individuals and help at categorizing them into diagnostic subclasses.
We compared patients with psychotic symptoms (early-onset and lifetime) to patients with mood disorders (unipolar depression or bipolar disorder without psychotic symptoms). Psychotic symptoms intensity was significantly higher in the early-onset group compared to the lifetime group and was markedly greater than in the two other groups. It was also observed that the intensity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the psychosis group were significantly higher in the early-onset subgroup.
Our findings suggest that the clinical presentation of early-onset patients, typically striking in its symptomatology, is reflected by elevated scores on scales not routinely used for psychotic symptoms. This may be attributed to the pervasive destructuring of personality and reality characteristic of early psychotic experiences.
本研究旨在通过心理测量工具评估症状差异，比较精神病发展早期阶段的患者与症状更为成熟的患者。我们的假设是，与成年人相比，青少年患者的早期阶段在症状的数量和质量上都有所不同。
我们使用心理测量工具和临床访谈对116名参与者进行了评估，这些参与者年龄在14至65岁之间，患有精神病或情绪症状。这些工具探索了精神病、抑郁和焦虑维度，以对招募的个体进行多方面评估，并帮助将他们分类到诊断子类中。
我们将有精神病症状的患者（早发型和终生型）与患有情绪障碍的患者（单相抑郁症或无精神病症状的双相情感障碍）进行了比较。早发型组的精神病症状强度明显高于终生型组，且明显高于其他两组。还观察到，精神病组中早发亚组的焦虑和抑郁症状强度明显更高。
我们的研究结果表明，早发患者的临床表现通常在症状学上很突出，这体现在非常规用于评估精神病症状的量表得分升高上。这可能归因于早期精神病体验中普遍存在的人格和现实解构。
