Predictors of disability: A 5-year cohort study of first-episode schizophrenia

Disability at 5 years was associated with illness variables - episodic nature of illness at baseline, psychopathology and functioning, duration in psychotic episode and return to pre-morbid function. Patient perspectives about their illness (insight and patient explanatory models) were only associated cross-sectionally at 60 months but not earlier and are more suggestive of a coping response rather than being predictive of outcome. The relationship between unemployment and disability suggests that they are products of the same disease process.