The proportion of people with primary affective disorders presenting to early intervention services: systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: People with affective psychotic disorders often face diagnostic delays and presentations are under-recognised at first contact with early intervention services (EIS). Despite their clinical significance, most research and service models for first-episode psychosis (FEP) have focused on non-affective psychoses. AIMS: We sought to clarify the relative prevalence of affective psychoses in EIS. METHOD: -statistics. Meta-regressions examined potential moderators, including urbanicity, national income level and geographical region. RESULTS: = 79; 95% CI 40.3-50.7). Meta-regression analyses identified that affective psychoses were less common in Asia and more common in North America compared with Europe. Higher urbanicity was also associated with increased prevalence. Associations with national income level (NIL) were limited by small subgroup sizes. CONCLUSIONS: Affective psychotic disorders constitute a meaningful subgroup within EIS. This suggests better screening, targeted treatments and adaptive service models of care.
Authors
- Sameer Jauhar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3878-3659)
- Diego Quattrone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6051-8309)
- Roxanna Short (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1887-637X)
- Aswin Ratheesh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8029-9422)
- Clàudia Aymerich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0040-1608)
- Allan H. Young (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2291-6952)
- Borja Pedruzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1460-1571)
- Anna Tsaligopoulou
- Samuel Swidzinski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5782-1289)
- Paul Fearon
- Pricilla Swidzinska
- Robert A McCutcheon
- Ana Catalán
- Paolo Fusar-Poli
- Robin M Murray
- Ben Carter
- Sophia Knox
Institutions
- Trinity Health (US)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- King's College London (GB)
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University of Pavia (IT)
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ES)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- BioCruces Health research Institute (ES)
- Hospital de Basurto (ES)
- Medical Research Network (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2026-04-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2026.10602
- Primary Topic
- Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00