Correlation between duration of untreated psychosis and working memory in early-onset psychotic disorders

Psychotic disorders are morbid mental disorders that impair working memory. Theory suggests that longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) results in worse working memory. However, results from previous studies are contradictory, with no study having been conducted in children. This study aims at finding out the association between duration of untreated psychosis and working memory in children. This is a cross-sectional study with 45 subjects. DUP was collected from medical records whereas working memory was measured using digit span backward raw score. Average digit span backward scores of subjects was 3.7 ± 1.18. Analysis using Spearman test showed no significant association (p = 0.128) between DUP and working memory. In conclusion, there is no association between DUP and working memory in children, therefore we recommend that psychiatrists pay attention to working memory impairment in all pediatric patients with psychotic disorders, regardless of their DUP.