engleski

Biomarkers in schizophrenia- results of a prospective follow up study with patients with the first episode of psychosis

Schizophrenia is one of the most demanding psychiatric disorders due to heterogeneity of clinical presentations and difficulties in posing diagnosis, prediciting prognosis and developing treatment plan treatment. Up to this date, possible biomarkers that could help to objectify the diagnosis and the course of treatment of schizophrenia are still not identified. In this project, we recruited a sample of 150 patients with first-episode of psychosis (of schizophrenia type) (FEP)and 100 healthy controls and assessed changes between the acute psychosis and subsequent remission among patients over an 18-month follow- up. The assessments included several methods performed through four work packages. In this report, we present the results of assessment with psychopathological scales, battery of neurocognitive tests and test for facial emotional recognition, as well as of salivatory cortisol measurement during a stress paradigm and cerebral blood perfusion in the resting state (with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)) and during stress conditions using the transcranial doppler ultrasound. Overall, we found multiple deficits in various functions including neurocognitive deficits, hypoperfusion in several brain areas in SPECT, as well as deficits in functional aspects (sensitivity to stress) that differentiated healthy controls from FEP. Some of these deficits were still present after 18- month follow-up. These results confirm that the deficits seen in schizophrenia are present from the first presentation of illness and some do not respond well to the treatment. This finding supports the concept of early detection and early intervention with multi-layered treatment approaches from the first-episode of psychosis.

schizophrenia ; first-episode psychosis ; neurocognition ; emotional recognition ; SPECT, stress, cortisol

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