Effects of age of onset on clinical characteristics in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

BACKGROUND Over the last few decades, research regarding the age of onset of schizophrenia and its relationship with other clinical variables has been incorporated into clinical practices. However, reports of potential differences in demographic and clinical characteristics between early- and adult-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders have been controversial. Thus, this study aims to assess differences in demographic and clinical characteristics correlated with age of illness onset in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. METHODS Data were collected from 104 patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Diagnosis was made via structured clinical interviews. Assessments of psychiatric symptoms and social and global functioning were completed. The effect of age of onset on demographic and clinical variables was examined using correlation analyses and binary logistic regression models. We chose 17 years of age as the cut-off for early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders based on a recent clinical consensus. We further investigated differences in the severity of psychopathology and other clinical variables between the early- and adult-onset groups. RESULTS The binary logistic regression analysis showed that age of onset was significantly related to the cognitive component of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) (odds ratio, OR = 0.58; 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.872-0.985; p < 0.001) and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) score (OR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.447-0.744; p = 0.015). Patients with early onset of schizophrenia spectrum disorders had significantly greater levels of cognitive impairment and higher impulsivity. There were significant differences between several demographic and clinical variables, including the negative symptom component of the PANSS (p < 0.001), cognitive component of the PANSS (p < 0.001), BIS score (p = 0.05), and psychological domain of quality of life (QOL) (p = 0.05), between patients with early- and adult-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders, having controlled for the effect of the current age and duration of illness. CONCLUSIONS Our findings support the hypothesis of an influence of age of onset on illness course in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. This finding may in fact be part of a separate domain worthy of investigation for the development of interventions for early symptoms of schizophrenia.