The case for improved transdiagnostic detection of first-episode psychosis: Electronic health record cohort study

Improving outcomes of a First Episode of Psychosis (FEP) relies on the ability to detect most individuals with emerging psychosis and treat them in specialised Early Intervention (EI) services. Efficacy of current detection strategies is undetermined.

RECORD-compliant clinical, 6-year, retrospective, transdiagnostic, lifespan-inclusive, Electronic Health Record (EHR) cohort study, representing real-world secondary mental healthcare in South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS. All individuals accessing SLaM in the period 2007-2017 and receiving any ICD-10 diagnosis other than persistent psychosis were included. Descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier curves, logistic regression, epidemiological incidence of psychosis in the general population were used to address pathways to care and detection power of EI services for FEP.

A total of 106,706 individuals underwent the 6-year follow-up: they were mostly single (72.57%) males (50.51%) of white ethnicity (60.01%), aged on average 32.96 years, with an average Health Of the Nation Outcome Scale score of 11.12 and mostly affected with F40-48 Neurotic/stress-related/somatoform disorders (27.46%). Their transdiagnostic risk of developing a FEP cumulated to 0.072 (95%CI 0.067-0.077) at 6 years. Those individuals who developed a FEP (n = 1841) entered healthcare mostly (79.02%) through inpatient mental health services (29.76%), community mental health services (29.54%) or accident and emergency departments (19.50%); at the time of FEP onset, most of them (46.43%) were under the acute care pathway. Individuals contacting accident and emergency departments had an increased risk of FEP (OR 2.301, 95%CI 2.095-2.534, P < 0.001). The proportion of SLaM FEP cases that were eligible and under the care of EI services was 0.456 at any time. The epidemiological proportion of FEP cases in the sociodemographically-matched general population that was detected by EI service was 0.373.

More than half of individuals who develop a FEP remain undetected by current pathways to care and EI services. Improving detection strategies should become a mainstream area in the future generation of early psychosis research.