Untreated illness and recovery in clients of an early psychosis intervention program: a 10-year prospective cohort study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate whether duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and duration of untreated illness (DUI) are associated with measures of both subjective and objective recovery 10 years after a first episode of psychosis. Methods: A cohort of 65 clients from an early psychosis intervention program completed a battery of outcome measures 10 years following initial treatment for first-episode psychosis (FEP). The outcomes of interest were self-perceived recovery scores (Maryland Assessment of Recovery in People with Serious Mental Illness Scale) and occupational activity, defined as engagement in work and/or school on a full/part-time basis. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between DUP and DUI with each measure of recovery, adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results: We did not find a statistically significant association between DUP and either occupational activity (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 0.81–1.95) or self-perceived recovery score (β = − 0.73, 95% CI − 2.42 to 0.97). However, we found a significant negative association between DUI and self-perceived recovery score (β = − 0.52, 95% CI − 0.87 to − 0.16). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that DUI may have a stronger influence than DUP on recovery from FEP at 10-year follow-up. This suggests the potential value in targeted interventions for people with a long DUI to increase the likelihood of achieving recovery after the first episode of psychosis.