The aim of the current study was to explore the effect of gender, age at onset, and duration on the long-term course of schizophrenia.

Twenty-nine centers from 25 countries representing all continents participated in the study that included 2358 patients aged 37.21 ± 11.87 years with a DSM-IV or DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia; the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale as well as relevant clinicodemographic data were gathered. Analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were used, and the methodology corrected for the presence of potentially confounding effects.

There was a 3-year later age at onset for females (P < .001) and lower rates of negative symptoms (P < .01) and higher depression/anxiety measures (P < .05) at some stages. The age at onset manifested a distribution with a single peak for both genders with a tendency of patients with younger onset having slower advancement through illness stages (P = .001). No significant effects were found concerning duration of illness.

Our results confirmed a later onset and a possibly more benign course and outcome in females. Age at onset manifested a single peak in both genders, and surprisingly, earlier onset was related to a slower progression of the illness. No effect of duration has been detected. These results are partially in accord with the literature, but they also differ as a consequence of the different starting point of our methodology (a novel staging model), which in our opinion precluded the impact of confounding effects. Future research should focus on the therapeutic policy and implications of these results in more representative samples.

The aim of the current study was to explore the changing interrelationships among clinical variables through the stages of schizophrenia in order to assemble a comprehensive and meaningful disease model.

Twenty-nine centers from 25 countries participated and included 2358 patients aged 37.21 ± 11.87 years with schizophrenia. Multiple linear regression analysis and visual inspection of plots were performed.

The results suggest that with progression stages, there are changing correlations among Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale factors at each stage and each factor correlates with all the others in that particular stage, in which this factor is dominant. This internal structure further supports the validity of an already proposed four stages model, with positive symptoms dominating the first stage, excitement/hostility the second, depression the third, and neurocognitive decline the last stage.

The current study investigated the mental organization and functioning in patients with schizophrenia in relation to different stages of illness progression. It revealed two distinct “cores” of schizophrenia, the “Positive” and the “Negative,” while neurocognitive decline escalates during the later stages. Future research should focus on the therapeutic implications of such a model. Stopping the progress of the illness could demand to stop the succession of stages. This could be achieved not only by both halting the triggering effect of positive and negative symptoms, but also by stopping the sensitization effect on the neural pathways responsible for the development of hostility, excitement, anxiety, and depression as well as the deleterious effect on neural networks responsible for neurocognition.

Longitudinal studies of the relationship between cognition and functioning in bipolar disorder are scarce, although cognition is thought to be a key determinant of functioning. The causal structure between cognition and psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder is unknown.

We sought to examine the direction of causality between cognitive performance and functional outcome over 2 years in a large cohort of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.

The sample consisted of 272 adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder who were euthymic at baseline, 12 and 24 months. All participants were recruited via the FondaMental Advanced Centers of Expertise in Bipolar Disorders. We used a battery of tests, assessing six domains of cognition at baseline and 24 months. Residual depressive symptoms and psychosocial functioning were measured at baseline and 12 and 24 months. The possible causal structure between cognition and psychosocial functioning was investigated with cross-lagged panel models with residual depressive symptoms as a covariate.

The analyses support a causal model in which cognition moderately predicts and is causally primary to functional outcome 1 year later, whereas psychosocial functioning does not predict later cognitive performance. Subthreshold depressive symptoms concurrently affected functioning at each time of measure.

Our results are compatible with an upward causal effect of cognition on functional outcome in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. Neuropsychological assessment may help specify individual prognoses. Further studies are warranted to confirm this causal link and evaluate cognitive remediation, before or simultaneously with functional remediation, as an intervention to improve functional outcome.

Cognitive deficits are a well-established feature of bipolar disorders (BD), even during periods of euthymia, but risk factors associated with cognitive deficits in euthymic BD are still poorly understood. We aimed to validate classification criteria for the identification of clinically significant cognitive impairment, based on psychometric properties, to estimate the prevalence of neuropsychological deficits in euthymic BD, and identify risk factors for cognitive deficits using a multivariate approach.

We investigated neuropsychological performance in 476 euthymic patients with BD recruited via the French network of BD expert centres. We used a battery of tests, assessing five domains of cognition. Five criteria for the identification of neuropsychological impairment were tested based on their convergent and concurrent validity. Uni- and multivariate logistic regressions between cognitive impairment and several clinical and demographic variables were performed to identify risk factors for neuropsychological impairment in BD.

One cut-off had satisfactory psychometric properties and yielded a prevalence of 12.4% for cognitive deficits in euthymic BD. Antipsychotics use were associated with the presence of a cognitive deficit.

This is the first study to validate a criterion for clinically significant cognitive impairment in BD. We report a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment than previous studies, which may have overestimated its prevalence. Patients with euthymic BD and cognitive impairment may benefit from cognitive remediation.

The relationship between residual depressive symptoms, cognition and functioning in patients with euthymic bipolar disorder is a subject of debate.

To assess whether cognition mediates the association between residual depressive symptoms and functioning in patients with bipolar disorder who were euthymic.

We included 241 adults with euthymic bipolar disorder in a multicentre cross-sectional study. We used a battery of tests to assess six cognition domains. A path analysis was then used to perform a mediation analysis of the relationship between residual depressive symptoms, cognitive components and functioning.

Only verbal and working memory were significantly associated with better functioning. Residual depressive symptoms were associated with poorer functioning. No significant relationship was found between residual depressive symptoms and any cognitive component.

Cognition and residual depressive symptoms appear to be two independent sources of variation in the functioning of people with euthymic bipolar disorder.

It is unclear whether there is a direct link between economic crises and changes in suicide rates.

The Lopez-Ibor Foundation launched an initiative to study the possible impact of the economic crisis on European suicide rates.

Data was gathered and analysed from 29 European countries and included the number of deaths by suicide in men and women, the unemployment rate, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the annual economic growth rate and inflation.

There was a strong correlation between suicide rates and all economic indices except GPD per capita in men but only a correlation with unemployment in women. However, the increase in suicide rates occurred several months before the economic crisis emerged.

Overall, this study confirms a general relationship between the economic environment and suicide rates; however, it does not support there being a clear causal relationship between the current economic crisis and an increase in the suicide rate.

Little is known about international variations in employment rates among people with schizophrenia or about the factors associated with employment in this disorder.

To describe employment patterns and the variables associated with working in an international sample of people with schizophrenia.

An analysis was made of baseline data from the European Schizophrenia Cohort study, a 2-year investigation of people with schizophrenia in contact with secondary services and living in France, Germany and the UK (n = 1208).

Participants were working in all sections of the job market. People who had a degree, were living with their families or had experienced only a single episode of illness were more likely to be working. A continuous illness course, more severe non-psychotic symptoms and drug misuse reduced the odds of employment. There were large variations between centres in employment rates, which were highest in the three German study sites. These differences persisted after adjustment for individual characteristics.

Local social contexts may be as important as individual or illness-related factors in explaining employment status.

Burden on the relatives of patients with schizophrenia may be influenced not only by patient and caregiver characteristics, but also by differences in mental health service provision.

To analyse whether family burden is affected by national differences in the provision of mental health services.

Patients with schizophrenia and their key relatives were examined in Germany (n=333) and Britain (n = 170). Differences in family burden in both countries were analysed with regression models controlling for patient and caregiver characteristics.

Family burden was associated with patients' symptoms, male gender, unemployment and marital status, as well as caregivers' coping abilities, patient contact and being a patient's parent. However, even when these attributes were controlled for, British caregivers reported more burden than German caregivers.

National differences in family burden may be related to different healthcare systems in Germany and Britain. Support for patients with schizophrenia may be shifted from the professional to the informal healthcare sector more in Britain than in Germany.