Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 14, 2025
10:46
A Method of Trigonometric Modelling of Seasonal Variation Demonstrated with Multiple Sclerosis Relapse Data
Published on: December 9, 2015
10.8K
Differences in Temporal Relapse Characteristics Between Affective and Non-affective Psychotic Disorders: Longitudinal
Sarah A Immanuel1,2, Geoff Schrader1,3, Niranjan Bidargaddi1,2
1College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
|March 11, 2021
Summary
Patients with affective disorders show predictable relapse trends, unlike those with non-affective psychotic disorders whose relapse times appear random. This finding offers insights into the neurobiology of mental health relapse patterns.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
- Data Science
Background:
- Recurrent relapses are common in affective and non-affective psychotic disorders.
- Understanding relapse patterns is key to exploring the neurobiology of mental illness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize and compare the temporal nature of relapses in affective versus non-affective psychotic disorders.
- To investigate differences in relapse trends using a novel symbolic series-based approach.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of anonymized patient records from the SA Mental Health Data Universe.
- Computation of a relapse trend score using a symbolic series-based approach.
- Logistic regression models to compare relapse trends between patient groups.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in relapse trend scores were observed between affective and non-affective psychotic disorders.
- Patients with affective disorders exhibited significantly higher relapse trend scores compared to non-affective psychotic disorders, indicating more predictable relapse patterns.
- For patients with six or more hospitalizations, affective disorder relapse scores were 2.6 times higher (OR 2.6, 95% CI [1.8-3.7], p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
- Patients with affective disorders are more likely to have predictable relapse timelines than those with recurrent non-affective psychotic disorders.
- Relapse timing in non-affective psychosis appears to be random.
- This longitudinal, trajectory-based approach may reveal underlying biological differences in mental health conditions.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
282
Schizophrenia, a complex psychiatric disorder, has been historically misunderstood. Early psychological theories attributed its origins to childhood trauma and unresponsive parenting. However, contemporary research largely rejects these notions, favoring the vulnerability-stress hypothesis. This model proposes that individuals with a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia may develop the disorder following exposure to significant environmental stressors. Notably, studies on high-risk...
282
02:20Longitudinal Research
12.8K
Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...
12.8K
01:28Psychosis and Antipsychotic Drugs: Overview
601
The term "psychosis" refers to a spectrum of mental disorders characterized by abnormal thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors. It can manifest as mood disorders, dementia, delirium with psychotic features, substance-induced psychosis with psychotic features, brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. Among all these disorders, schizophrenia is the most common psychotic disorder, affecting 1% of the worldwide population. Psychotic...
601
01:26Psychosis: Goals of Pharmacotherapy
313
Antipsychotic drugs are a crucial treatment method for acute and chronic psychoses, bipolar illness, and behavioral disorders. The selection of these drugs depends on several factors, including the state of the disease, clinical judgment, possible drug interactions, and the patient's sensitivity to adverse effects. In immediate scenarios, such as delirium and dementia, short-term treatment with low doses of high-potency typical or atypical agents can effectively manage symptom exacerbation.
313
01:17Classification of Illness
8.2K
The meaning of illness is individualized to each person who experiences an alteration in health. In contrast, disease is a medical term indicating a pathological change in the structure and function of the body or mind. It is a condition that has specific symptoms and boundaries.
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe...
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe...
8.2K
01:26Longitudinal Studies
329
Longitudinal studies are also widely used in other medical and social science fields. For instance, in cardiovascular research, they can monitor patients' health over decades to identify risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or smoking, and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of preventive measures. Similarly, in mental health studies, researchers might follow individuals from adolescence into adulthood to understand the development and progression of conditions like...
329