BACKGROUND: People with affective psychotic disorders often face diagnostic delays and presentations are under-recognised at first contact with early intervention services (EIS). Despite their clinical significance, most research and service models for first-episode psychosis (FEP) have focused on non-affective psychoses. AIMS: We sought to clarify the relative prevalence of affective psychoses in EIS. METHOD: -statistics. Meta-regressions examined potential moderators, including urbanicity, national income level and geographical region. RESULTS: = 79; 95% CI 40.3-50.7). Meta-regression analyses identified that affective psychoses were less common in Asia and more common in North America compared with Europe. Higher urbanicity was also associated with increased prevalence. Associations with national income level (NIL) were limited by small subgroup sizes. CONCLUSIONS: Affective psychotic disorders constitute a meaningful subgroup within EIS. This suggests better screening, targeted treatments and adaptive service models of care.
Catalán et al. (2026) studied this question.