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Effect of an early detection programme on duration of untreated psychosis: part of the Scandinavian TIPS study.

Friis S, Vaglum P, Haahr U, Johannessen JO, Larsen TK, Melle I, Opjordsmoen S, Rund BR, Simonsen E, McGlashan TH

Department of Research and Education, Division of Psychiatry, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo N-0407, Norway. svein.friis@medsin.uio.no

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether an early detection programme increases or decreases the number of patients with a long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), and whether these differ from other patients with a long DUP. AIMS: To investigate whether the number and characteristics of patients with a long DUP in the early detection programme differ from those with a long DUP in the non-early detection programme. METHOD: We compared the number and characteristics of patients with a DUP > or =2 years in an early detection area and a non-early detection area. RESULTS: The early detection programme recruited slightly fewer patients with a long DUP than the non-early detection programme. The patients in the early detection programme had lower PANSS scores, but more frequently had a deteriorating course of premorbid social functioning. CONCLUSIONS: An early detection programme does not seem to drain a pool of previously undetected patients with a long DUP. The patients in the early detection programme seem to have a lower symptom level at baseline and to have had a deteriorating premorbid social course.

Published 1 August 2005 in Br J Psychiatry Suppl, 48: s29-32.
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