Abstract: Real-world functional deficits are common and persistent in individuals with psychosis. Cognitive
deficits have been shown to compromise functioning. We aimed to study the predictive values of
premorbid, sociodemographic, and baseline clinical and neurocognitive factors on long-term functional
outcome for individuals with first episode non-affective psychosis. We failed to demonstrate a
significant relationship between cognitive deficits at baseline and functional disability at 3 year
follow-up. Diagnosis of schizophrenia (OR¼2.457, p¼0.011), shorter education (OR¼1.177, p¼0.005)
and poor premorbid social adjustment (OR¼1.628, p¼0.013) emerged as the strongest predictors for
the 114 subjects (56%) that exhibited functional disability at 3-year follow-up. A considerable
proportion of the variance in functioning (74% at 1 year and 77% at 3 year) remained unexplained by
baseline variables. The set of variables that predicted functional outcome at medium- (1 year) and longterm (3 years) differed. In conclusion, the length of follow-up influenced the relationship between
baseline variables and functional outcome. A substantial proportion of the variance in function was not
explained by these variables and therefore the influence of other factors warrants further investigation.
The data support the notion that premorbid social adjustment is an important aspect in functional
outcome over the course of the illness.
