The comparison of the coping styles between patients in ultra-high risk for psychosis state, first episode of psychosis and chronic schizophrenia

The aim of the study: The aim of this study was to investigate differences in coping styles between individu- als at ultra high risk for psychosis, with first episode psychosis, chronic schizophrenia and healthy controls.Subject or material and methods: A total of 167 individuals with chronic schizophrenia (CHS; n=66), first ep- isode psychosis (FEP; n=31), at ultra high risk for psychosis (UHR; n=16) and healthy controls (HC; n=54) were recruited to complete the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) to investigate their preferred coping styles. Demographic data were collected using a short self-designed questionnaire.Results: Our results demonstrated all participants' preference for mixed coping (i.e. a strategy in which two or three styles are applied with similar frequency). The second choice across the control group was task -ori- ented, and in the clinical groups emotion-oriented coping. Interestingly, task-oriented coping was significantly more frequent in controls relative to the clinical groups, while the frequency of emotion-oriented coping did not differ significantly across our sample. Avoidance-oriented coping was reported significantly more frequently in the CHS compared to both HC and UHR.Discussion: This study demonstrates differences in coping with stressful situations between patients at var- ious stages of psychosis and healthy individuals.Conclusions: Therapeutic interventions for patients from the psychosis spectrum should include education on coping with stress and practical training of coping skills.