The role of patient-reported outcomes at the interface between medicine and psychiatry: a systematic review of domains, measures, and longitudinal change in adult patients hospitalized for first-episode psychosis.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) can complement clinician-rated measures by capturing patients' perspectives on recovery, treatment, functioning, and safety. The present systematic review mapped pPRO domains and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) adopted in adult patients hospitalized or recently hospitalized for first-episode psychosis (FEP). Three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and APA PsycINFO) were searched from inception to May 2026. The study protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261417712). Twelve studies involving 1,272 patients were included; adult FEP or first-inpatient-treatment PRO/PROM data were quantitatively extractable from 10 studies (n = 861). Five domain groups were identified: recovery-related, treatment-related, suicidality-related, cognition-related, and interpersonal-related outcomes. Recovery-related measures, particularly quality of life, subjective well-being, stigma, and self-esteem, were most frequently represented, while other clinically relevant domains were assessed less frequently. Longitudinal findings were limited and heterogeneous: some patient-reported dimensions improved during inpatient treatment, whereas others remained constant despite clinical or functional improvement. No single PROM or structured PRO measure was used consistently in order to perform meta-analysis. Current evidence suggests that PROs provide clinically relevant information beyond symptom ratings, but inpatient FEP research requires more standardized, longitudinal, and clinically meaningful patient-reported assessment.