Effect of early intervention on 5-year outcome in non-affective psychosis.

BACKGROUND:

Early specialised care may improve short-term outcome in first-episode non-affective psychosis, but it is unclear if these benefits endure.

AIMS:

To assess the long-term effect of early intervention in psychosis.

METHOD:

Individuals with first-episode psychosis were randomised to specialised care or care as usual (trial number: ISRCTN73679874). Outcome after 5 years was assessed by case-note review.

RESULTS:

There were no significant differences in the admission rate (coefficient 0.096, 95% CI 70.550 to 0.742, P = 0.770) or the mean number of bed days (coefficient 6.344, 95% CI 746 to 58.7, P = 0.810).

CONCLUSIONS:

These findings that specialist intervention did not markedly improved outcome at 5 years accord with those from a larger OPUS study. The sample size of this study was small and these results should be generalised with caution. More research is needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)