Prevalence of Personality Disorders in First-episode Psychosis and Its Relationship with Stressful Life Events Severity of Symptoms and Duration of Untreated Illness

Background: Personality and psychosis have a complex and bi-directional relationship.There is evidence of the influence of personality disorders (PDs) on clinical variables of psychosis.To study the comorbidity of personality disorder in first-episode psychosis (FEP) and its relation with symptom severity and stressful life events.Materials and methods: The sample consists of 40 patients with a diagnosis of FEP after initial screening by MINI-PLUS, positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) was applied for symptom severity and at the time of discharge based on their amenability for the interview, presumptive stressful life event (PSLE) and international personality disorder examination (IPDE) were employed.Results: The majority of patients (80%) with FEP had personality disorder and 87.5% of patients had stressful life events present.Borderline and histrionic PDs were the most common.Higher PANSS general scores were seen in patients with PDs.Positive and negative syndrome scale negative scores showed an inverse correlation with the duration of untreated illness.Positive and negative syndrome scale positive scores were positively correlated with perceived stress.An inverse correlation between PANSS positive and negative scores with several stressful life events on the PSLE scale and an inverse correlation between PANSS general scores with perceived stress on the PSLE scale was seen. Conclusion:The majority of patients with FEP have a comorbid personality disorder and precipitating stressful life events.Early diagnosis of PDs and their management can improve prognosis and also mitigate other challenges associated with primary psychiatric disorders.