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Individuals treated for psychotic disorders and mood disorders with psychotic features have a high likelihood of relapse across the life course. This study examines the relapse rate and its associated predictors for children and adolescents experiencing a first-episode and develops a statistical risk-model for prediction of time to first-relapse. A multiyear, retrospective cohort design was used to track youth, under the age of 18 years, who experienced a first-episode of psychosis, and were admitted to 1 of 6 inpatient hospital psychiatric units (N87). Participants were followed for at least 2 years (M3.9, SD1.3) using survival analysis. Approximately 60% of subjects experienced relapse requiring hospital readmission by the end of follow-up, with 33% readmitted within the first year and 44% within 2 years. Median survival time was 34 months. Cox proportional hazards regression identified 4 key risk factors for relapse: medication nonadherence, female gender, receiving clinical treatment, and a decline in social support before first admission.

We examined the outcome with fluphenazine treatment and ECT in a group of 120 patients according to the incidence of psychopathological symptoms, the patients’ status on a variety of sociodemographic and anamnestic variables, and their diagnoses according to 13 systems for diagnosing schizophrenia. All had previously been considered to be schizophrenic patients at least once in hospital settings. The outcome with fluphenazine was better in patients with passivity feelings, auditory hallucinations and other hallucinations and delusions. The outcome with patients who had ECT, as judged from the hospital files, was better in those who were preoccupied with delusions or hallucinations and less successful in those who had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia on the first previous occasion when they had been discharged from the hospital.