Longitudinal symptomatic interactions in long-standing schizophrenia: a novel five-point analysis based on directed acyclic graphs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent network models propose that mutual interaction between symptoms has an important bearing on the onset of schizophrenic disorder. In particular, cross-sectional studies suggest that affective symptoms may influence the emergence of psychotic symptoms. However, longitudinal analysis offers a more compelling test for causation: the European Schizophrenia Cohort (EuroSC) provides data suitable for this purpose. We predicted that the persistence of psychotic symptoms would be driven by the continuing presence of affective disturbance.

Methods

EuroSC included 1208 patients randomly sampled from outpatient services in France, Germany and the UK. Initial measures of psychotic and affective symptoms were repeated four times at 6-month intervals, thereby furnishing f

SUBMITTER: Moffa G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10009394 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature