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The Influence of Age and Sex on the Onset and Early Course of Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Heinz Häfner ,
Kurt Maurer ,
Walter Löffler  and
Anita Riecher-Rössler
Heinz Häfner*
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
Kurt Maurer
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
Walter Löffler
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
Anita Riecher-Rössler
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
*
∗Prof. Dr Dr H. Häfner, Head, Central Institute of Mental Health, PO Box 12 2120, D-6800 Mannheim 1, Germany
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Abstract

A new standardised interview for the retrospective assessment of onset and early course of schizophrenia (IRAOS) was used to study the influence of age and sex on time of onset and psychopathology before first admission in 267 schizophrenic patients admitted for the first time. Mean age at onset, according to various operationalised definitions, differed by three to four years between the sexes. The age distribution at the earliest sign of mental disorder showed an early and steep increase until the age of 25 in males, and a delayed and smaller increase in females, with a second peak in women aged 45–79. Schizophrenia began with negative symptoms in 70% of cases, appearing two to six years before admission, and all positive symptoms appearing up to two years before. Both positive and negative symptoms accumulated exponentially. The early course of the disease was similar across age groups, except there was a longer period of negative symptoms before first admission in late-onset schizophrenia in women. The few significant age differences in symptoms were presumably due to general age-dependent reaction patterns like anxiety and depression or the cognitive development of personality, as indicated by an increase in fully elaborated positive symptoms, especially systematised paranoid delusions, with age.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 1 , January 1993 , pp. 80 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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