Patterns of recovery course in early intervention for FIRST episode non-affective psychosis patients: The role of timing

"I thought it would just be, like, older men in white coats": A qualitative exploration of first encounters with mental health services

Individuals whose mental health is becoming a concern may not receive the care they require. Although efforts have been made to reduce barriers to accessing services, including stigma reduction campaigns and healthcare practitioner training, there remains a lack of understanding of individual perspectives regarding help-seeking behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore people's first experiences accessing mental health services. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted. Interviews were conducted with eight service users. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The COREQ checklist guided this study (Tong et al., 2007, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19, 349). Three themes were identified: learning to navigate an unfamiliar system, making sense of mental health services, and promoting a positive image for those in need of care. Uncertainty about mental health services and stigmatizing images could be mitigated by developing positive media-based interventions. Systemic barriers need to be addressed and services need to be better resourced to ensure the benefits of early intervention are available to those experiencing mental health challenges. To encourage people to access services earlier, services need to be promoted in a positive way.

Differences in Temporal Relapse Characteristics Between Affective and Non-affective Psychotic Disorders: Longitudinal Analysis

Objective: Multiple relapses over time are common in both affective and non-affective psychotic disorders. Characterizing the temporal nature of these relapses may be crucial to understanding the underlying neurobiology of relapse. Materials and Methods: Anonymized records of patients with affective and non-affective psychotic disorders were collected from SA Mental Health Data Universe and retrospectively analyzed. To characterize the temporal characteristic of their relapses, a relapse trend score was computed using a symbolic series-based approach. A higher score suggests that relapse follows a trend and a lower score suggests relapses are random. Regression models were built to investigate if this score was significantly different between affective and non-affective psychotic disorders. Results: Logistic regression models showed a significant group difference in relapse trend score between the patient groups. For example, in patients who were hospitalized six or more times, relapse score in affective disorders were 2.6 times higher than non-affective psychotic disorders [OR 2.6, 95% CI (1.8-3.7), p < 0.001]. Discussion: The results imply that the odds of a patient with affective disorder exhibiting a predictable trend in time to relapse were much higher than a patient with recurrent non-affective psychotic disorder. In other words, within recurrent non-affective psychosis group, time to relapse is random. Conclusion: This study is an initial attempt to develop a longitudinal trajectory-based approach to investigate relapse trend differences in mental health patients. Further investigations using this approach may reflect differences in underlying biological processes between illnesses.

Return to College After a First Episode of Psychosis

A first episode of psychosis (FEP) can derail a patient’s educational goals, including attainment of a college education, and this can have lasting ramifications for socioeconomic and health outcomes. Despite this, few studies have examined return to college, which is an important index of real-world educational success after a FEP. In this study, we conducted a longitudinal medical record review of patients in a transdiagnostic outpatient FEP program and performed survival analysis, setting return to college as the endpoint, among the subset of patients whose college education was interrupted. We found that 82% (93/114) of college-enrolled FEP individuals experienced disruptions to their education after FEP, but that return to college also occurred in a substantial proportion (49/88, 56%) among those on leave who had follow-up data. In this sample, the median time to college return was 18 months. When separated by baseline diagnostic category, FEP patients with affective psychotic disorders (FEAP, n = 45) showed faster time to college return than those with primary psychotic disorders (FEPP, n = 43) (median 12 vs 24 mo; P = .024, unadjusted). When adjusted for having no more than 1 psychiatric hospitalization at intake and absence of cannabis use in the 6 months prior to intake (which were also significant predictors), differences by diagnostic category were more significant (hazard ratio 2.66, 95% CI 1.43–4.94, P = .002). Participation in education is an important outcome for stakeholders, and students with FEP can be successful in accomplishing this goal.