Family history of psychosis and social, occupational and global outcome in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate associations between family history of psychosis and long-term occupational, social and global (i.e. combined occupational, social and clinical) outcome in schizophrenia. MethodA systematic search to identify potentially relevant studies was conducted using seven electronic databases and a manual search of literature. Only observational studies with a follow-up period of at least 2years were included. ResultsThe search identified 4081 unique potentially relevant articles, of which 14 met our inclusion criteria. The presence of family history of psychosis was associated with poor occupational and global outcome (n=3; r=0.17; P=0.008, n=11; r=0.13; P=0.002, respectively). ConclusionThis was the first systematic review on the effects of family history of psychosis on occupational and social outcome in schizophrenia. Based on the review, the presence of family history of psychosis has a relatively small but statistically significant association with long-term occupational and global outcome in patients with schizophrenia.