Prodromal features in first-psychotic episodes of major affective and schizoaffective disorders

Study aims were to analyze psychopathological details of prodromes leading to first-lifetime psychotic episodes and apply them to improve prediction of final diagnoses.

Comprehensive records of subjects with final diagnoses of bipolar I (BD-I; n = 216), schizoaffective (SzAffD; n = 71), or psychotic major-depressive (MDD; n = 42) disorders in the Harvard-McLean First-Psychotic Episode Project were analyzed to identify psychopathological details of prodromes leading to first-lifetime episodes with psychotic features and their ability to predict final diagnoses tested with multivariable logistic regression modeling.

While held blind to final diagnoses, we identified 84 distinct psychopathological characteristics of prodromes to first-psychotic episodes, including perceptual disturbances, affective symptoms, sleep disturbances, onset rate, and duration. Prevalence of 19 factors appeared to differ among final diagnoses, and were tested with multivariable regression modeling. Significantly and independently more associated with final diagnoses of MDD than BD-I were 7 features: suicidal ideation, somatic delusions, anorexia, lack of insomnia, older presenting age, depressive symptoms, and lack of impulsivity; 9 others were associated more with later SzAffD than MDD or BD-I: lack of insomnia, homicidal behavior, lack of excitement, visual hallucinations, command hallucinations, longer prodrome, male sex, responding to internal stimuli, and younger age at presentation.

Historical-retrospective and prospective assessments may have misidentified some prodromal features, and subjects with final psychotic-MDD diagnosis were relatively few.

Psychopathological features identified during prodromes leading to first-episodes with psychotic features predicted and distinguished among final diagnoses of MDD, BD-I, and SzAffD. The findings add to growing impressions that early psychopathology has value in predicting final diagnoses of major affective and schizoaffective disorders.