This study explores sex differences in the outcomes of patients with schizophrenia across diverse regions in the world like North Europe, Southern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, East Asia and North Africa, and the Middle East. Data that had been gathered was taken from the World-Schizophrenia Health Outcomes Study.
According to this, in most of the said regions, females had a later age at first service contact for schizophrenia which is a lower level of overall or negative symptom severity, lower rates of alcohol or substance abuse and paid employment, and higher percentage of having a spouse or partner and independent living.
Overall, females had slightly higher rates of clinical remission of 58% vs 51.8% , functional remission of 22.8% vs 16%, and recovery of 16.5% vs 16% at 36 months.
The said pattern was consistently observed in Southern Europe and Northern Europe even after controlling for baseline sex differences.
In Central and Eastern Europe, rates on clinical remission was higher in females at 36 months, but with the functional remission and recovery were just similar with male and females.
In Latin America, it was observed as the opposite result.
In East Asia, sex differences were rarely observed for these outcomes. And finally, in North Africa and in Middle East, sex differences in these outcomes were pronounced only in regression analysis.
Schizophrenia by the way is a mental disorder which is characterize by an abnormal behavior and failure to understand what is real. People that has schizophrenia often have an additional mental health problem such as anxiety disorder, major depressive illness, or substance use disorder.
Some of the causes of this illness includes environmental and generic factors. Some possible environmental factors include being raised in a city, cannabis use, certain infections, parental age, and poor nutrition during pregnancy. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the persons reported experiences.
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