The Scottish First Episode Schizophrenia Study V. One-year follow-up. The Scottish Schizophrenia Research Group

Abstract

Of 49 schizophrenic patients followed up 12 months after their first admission to hospital, only about 45% had experienced no relapse and had no schizophrenic symptoms; a poorer outcome was more often found in Feighner positive than Feighner negative schizophrenic patients. The patients' overall level of unemployment had more than doubled to 51%. In patients whose acute episodes responded to treatment, pimozide taken once weekly as maintenance therapy was as effective as intramuscular flupenthixol decanoate, but tardive dyskinesia appeared in two patients receiving weekly pimozide; the repeat psychometric assessment at 12 months found modest improvements, i.e. no evidence of intellectual decline, in Matrices, Block Design, and Digit Copying tests. Forty per cent of relatives still showed significant psychological distress, which correlated with patients' schizophrenic symptoms, and the relatives' social functioning remained poorer than that of a normal community sample.