Published studies have found prepulse inhibition (PPI) in schizophrenia is impaired, suggesting PPI may be a biomarker of schizophrenia. We aim to examine whether PPI deficits exist in antipsychot-ic-na?ve, first-episode schizophrenia, and evaluate the effect size of PPI deficits between patients and healthy controls. Methods: The effect size of PPI deficits was evaluated for PPI％ by calculating standard mean differ-ences (SMDs) between patients with antipsychotic-na?ve, first-episode schizophrenia and healthy controls. Results:Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria, consisting 390 antipsychotic-na?ve, first-episode schizophrenia and 406 healthy controls. The effect sizes of 76 dB PPI in 60 ms and 120 ms interstimulus interval (ISI) were -0.19 and-0.41 respectively, and the 76 dB PPI overall effect size was -0.30. The effect sizes of 85/86 dB PPI in 30 ms, 60 ms and 120 ms ISI were -0.25, -0.42 and -0.59 re-spectively, and the 85/86 dB PPI overall effect size was-0.46. One study were excluded due to heterogeneity in the 85/86 dB, 120 ms ISI group, the pooled effect size of the PPI differences between patient group and health con-trol dropped to -0.42, and the overall effect size changed to -0.39. There were no statistical differences in startle magnitude (overall effect size = -0.18) and habituation％(overall effect size = -0.17) between patients and healthy controls. Conclusions: Antipsychotic-na?ve, first-episode schizophrenia patients exhibit robust and reliable deficits in PPI, 85/86 dB PPI deficit was more severe than 76 dB PPI, and 85/86 dB, 60-ms ISI PPI was more likely to be a biomarker for schizophrenia, it suggested that the pa-rameters of PPI are particularly significant to affect the effect size so that should be interpreted with cautions in the future studies.