Table 1 Characteristics of the four major diagnostic groups compared to the group that progressed from lower ranked psychotic diagnoses to schizophrenia.

From: Genetic contribution to disease-course severity and progression in the SUPER-Finland study, a cohort of 10,403 individuals with psychotic disorders

Diagnosis group

Age at psychotic onset (median/IQR)

Age at schizophrenia (median/IQR)

Delayed schizophrenia diagnosis (β/p-value)

Gender balance (Male/Female)

Schizophrenia (n = 4 553a)

24.4/20.4–30.0

26.4/21.7–33.3

–

59.2%/40.8%

Progression to schizophrenia (combined n = 926)

24.3/19.9–31.3

31.9/24.9–41.7

0.62/1.02e-79

46.9%/53.1%

Schizoaffective disorder (n = 874)

26.9/21.8–34.4

–

–

36.8%/63.2%

Schizoaffective disorder preceding schizophrenia (n = 432b)

24.3/20.1–31.5

35.3/26.4 - 45.3

0.73/2.23e-56

47.0%/53.0%

Bipolar disorder (n = 1 494)

34.0/25.0–43.7

–

–

37.3%/62.7%

Bipolar disorder preceding schizophrenia (n = 235b)

24.3/20.6–30.8

33.3/26.1–43.2

0.74/2.61e-33

46.8%/53.2%

Psychotic MDD (n = 507)

35.9/24.1–49.4

–

–

37.5%/62.5%

Psychotic MDD preceding schizophrenia (n = 435b)

24.5/19.3–32.3

30.3 / 23.4–39.8

0.58/5.87e-36

43.0%/57.0%

  1. aIncludes only individuals who had schizophrenia as their first major psychotic disorder.
  2. b176 individuals were included in more than one of the above progression groups because they had received at least three of the major psychotic diagnoses at some point in time. However, the diagnostic hierarchy is unidirectional, meaning that a lower ranked diagnosis had to precede the more severely ranked diagnosis. In total 926 individuals progressed to schizophrenia form a lower ranked diagnosis.
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