THE CANTABRIA FIRST EPISODE SCHIZOPHRENIA STUDY - A SUMMARY OF GENERAL FINDINGS

This article describes the general findings of the initial cross-secti onal stage of a prospective follow-up study of all first episodes of s chizophrenia that occurred in the Autonomous Community of Cantabria ov er a 2-year period and that established contact with any mental health service. The project comprises: i) a 2-year cross-sectional stage, in which the sample was gathered and studied with structured psychiatric instruments such as the Present State Examination and the Scales for the Assessment of Negative and Positive Symptoms (SANS and SAPS), and; ii) a continuous follow-up. We detected, in the risk age ranged of 15 -54 years, an incidence of 1.9 per 10,000 inhabitants per year for sch izophrenia and of 1.3 per 10,000 inhabitants per year for the S + CATE GO diagnosis, without any significant gender difference of morbidity. The mean age for the total schizophrenic population was 26 years, bein g significantly higher in women than in men. In contrast with what hap pens with marital status, type of household or urban/rural way of life , there was no gender difference in relation to the other sociodemogra phic variables. The way in which nosological and clinical variables ar e associated with first episodes of schizophrenia was also examined in this study. We found that 75% of patients reached a maximum CATEGO-ID level, 71% received a S + CATEGO diagnosis, 59% presented first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia and that the percentage of a schizophrenic n egative syndrome, as identified by the SANS and SAPS, was very low. Fi nally, among the clinical variables investigated, only premorbid adjus tment, personal history of mental illness and length of admission pres ented significant gender differences.