Influence of trauma exposure on age of onset and cognitive performance in first episode psychosis.

Poster A75, Monday, October%208, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom

María Mayoral1, Mónica Muro-Pastrana1, Laura Roldan1, Mara Parellada1, Elisa Rodríguez-Toscano1; 1Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, IiSGM, CIBERSAM. Madrid, Spain.

Individuals with childhood trauma are at risk of having worst positive symptoms, functionality and cognitive performance in first episodes of psychosis (FEP). However, trauma impact on the age of onset of psychosis is not found or inconsistent and its mediation in cognitive performance is still unknown. The present investigation studied the influence of trauma rate on the age of onset of psychosis and its association to cognition in FEP. A sample of 230 patients and 205 healthy controls between 9 and 45 years was used. The rate of trauma was registered with the Questionnaire of Traumatic Experiences, and a large number of neuropsychological tests were used to calculate the cognitive domains of premorbid IQ, processing speed, working memory, executive functions and social cognition. Contingency tables were used to compare trauma rate between early and adult-onset groups and spearman correlation coefficients for proving relation of cognitive domains with the rate of trauma. Early onset FEP patients presented a larger percentage of individuals who suffered traumatic events than adult onset FEP patients (66 % faced to 46.4%; Chi2=5.69, p=0.017) and their matched controls (32.5%; Chi2=9.68, p=0.002). Also, a higher rate of trauma exposure was related to a worst premorbid IQ performance in this group (r=-0.40, p=0.025) but not in late onset (r=0.07, p=0.557). Trauma rate might therefore be related to the age of onset in FEP as well as to their premorbid IQ. These results could provide evidence that trauma is an epigenetic mediator in the relation gene-environment underlying psychosis expression.

Topic Area: First Episode Psychosis

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