TABLE 1.
Demographic, clinical, neurobiological, and linguistic data of patients with first-episode psychosis and healthy controls.
| FEP | HC | Pearson’s chi-squared test or Welch t-tests | ||
| N | 66 | 36 | − | |
| Demographics | ||||
| Age (years) | 22.82 (4.77) | 21.53 (3.32) | t(94.043) = 1.6005, p = 0.1128 | |
| Female/male | 12/54 | 12/24 | X-squared (1) = 2.1896, p = 0.1389 | |
| Education scale (1/2/3/4) | 15/18/20/13 | 5/3/14/13 | X-squared (3) = 8.0131, p = 0.04574 | * |
| Clinical | ||||
| PANSS-8 (total) | 25.18 (6.72) | − | − | |
| PANSS-8 positive | 11.62 (3.48) | − | − | |
| PANSS-8 negative | 6.97 (4.41) | − | − | |
| PANSS-8 general | 5.18 (2.46) | |||
| DUP (weeks) [median (IQR)] |
11.0 (4, 24) | − | − | |
| DDD lifetime exposure [median (IQR)] | 0.5 (0, 2.99) | − | − | |
| Antipsychotic naïve (%) | 42% | |||
| Functional | ||||
| SOFAS | 40.96 (12.40) | − | ||
| NEET status: yes/no | 24/29 | 0/31 | X-squared (1) = 17.497, p < 0.0001 | *** |
| Neurobiological | ||||
| Glutamate (mM) | 6.79 (1.16) | 6.51 (1.35) | t(53.766) = 0.99493, p = 0.3242 | |
| Mean cortical thickness (mm) | 2.45 (0.12) | 2.48 (0.096) | t(94) = 1.90350, p = 0.0600 | |
| Language variables | ||||
| TLI (Total) | 1.48 (1.41) | 0.29 (0.39) | t(81.668) = 6.4188, p < 0.00001 | *** |
| TLI impoverishment | 0.57 (0.72) | 0.14 (0.25) | t(87.397) = 4.3669, p < 0.0001 | *** |
| TLI disorganization | 0.91 (1.21) | 0.15 (0.26) | t(75.114) = 4.9033, p < 0.00001 | *** |
| Average total number of words | 119.18 (38.85) | 141.34 (29.83) | t(88.706) = −3.1775, p = 0.002045 | ** |
| MLS | 14.37 (4.58) | 14.21 (2.74) | t(96.753) = 0.20899, p = 0.8349 | |
| MLT | 12.21 (3.00) | 12.49 (2.08) | t(93.295) = −0.56025, p = 0.5767 | |
| MLC | 7.73 (1.20) | 8.19 (1.18) | t(73.659) = −1.8858, p = 0.06327 | |
| Repeated contents lemmas | 0.229 (0.047) | 0.247 (0.033) | t(89.792) = −2.1269, p = 0.03617 | * |
Values are reported as “Mean (SD)” unless specified otherwise.
IQR, Interquartile range; FEP, first episode psychosis; HC, healthy controls; PANSS, Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale; DUP, duration of untreated psychosis; DDD, Defined Daily Dose; SOFAS, Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale; NEET, not in employment, education and training; TLI, Thought and Language Index; MLS, mean length of sentences; MLT, mean length of T-units; MLC, mean length of clauses.
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.