Background: It is unclear whether an early detection programme increases or decreases the number of patients with a long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), and whether these differ from other patients with a long DUP.
Aims: To investigate whether the number and characteristics of patients with a long DUP in the early detection programme differ from those with a long DUP in the non-early detection programme.
Method: We compared the number and characteristics of patients with a DUP > or =2 years in an early detection area and a non-early detection area.
Results: The early detection programme recruited slightly fewer patients with a long DUP than the non-early detection programme. The patients in the early detection programme had lower PANSS scores, but more frequently had a deteriorating course of premorbid social functioning.
Conclusions: An early detection programme does not seem to drain a pool of previously undetected patients with a long DUP. The patients in the early detection programme seem to have a lower symptom level at baseline and to have had a deteriorating premorbid social course.