Psychosis in Women: Time for Personalized Treatment

Marianna Mazza, Emanuele Caroppo, Domenico De Berardis, Giuseppe Marano, Carla Avallone, Georgios D. Kotzalidis, Delfina Janiri, Lorenzo Moccia, Alessio Simonetti, Eliana Conte, Giovanni Martinotti, Luigi Janiri (+1 others)
2021 Journal of Personalized Medicine  
Early detection and prompt treatment of psychosis is of the utmost importance. The great variability in clinical onset, illness course, and response to pharmacological and psychosocial treatment is in great part gender-related. Our aim has been to review narratively the literature focusing on gender related differences in the psychoses, i.e., schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We searched the PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Embase, and ScienceDirect databases on 31 July 2021, focusing on recent research
more » ... regarding sex differences in early psychosis. Although women, compared to men, tend to have better overall functioning at psychotic symptom onset, they often present with more mood symptoms, may undergo misdiagnosis and delay in treatment and are at a higher risk for antipsychotic drug-induced metabolic and endocrine-induced side effects. Furthermore, women with schizophrenia spectrum disorders have more than double the odds of having physical comorbidities than men. Tailored treatment plans delivered by healthcare services should consider gender differences in patients with a diagnosis of psychosis, with a particular attention to early phases of disease in the context of the staging model of psychosis onset.
doi:10.3390/jpm11121279 pmid:34945748 pmcid:PMC8705671 fatcat:vlbaicmzk5emtnatkw6mq25uim