Early Intervention in Psychosis - treament as usual?
i work for an Early Intervention in Psychosis team which for people who don't know are teams that were set up approximately ten years ago to reduce the devastating effects of psychotic illness which when left untreated can be disabling for people. We work with people from the ages of 14 - 35 years old who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis or who at risk of developing it, by that i mean they need to have some of the symptoms that we associate with the prodromal phase of psychosis this can be
Reduced concentration, Reduced drive and motivation, Depressed mood, Sleep disturbance, Anxiety, Social withdrawal, Suspiciousness and Deterioration in role functioning and irritability
In the prodrome stage these can be very faint and we often rely on reports from friends, families or teachers to tell us that they have noticed a change in their young person and their behaviour, we have an open referral system for this reason. it's a tricky job as it's hard to distinguish sometimes what exactly is going on as some of the symptoms can just be normal adolescence and we don't want to give young people a label that could be incredibly damaging, however we also don't want to miss a psychosis as the longer it is left untreated the worse the outcome.
the treatment can include family work and psycho-education to help families cope with the young person and the change in their behaviours and functioning, CBT for psychosis, social inclusion and if necessary a low dose of an anti-psychotic but we only use that if we absolutely have to as the side effects from anti-psychotics can be as damaging as psychosis.we also do a lot of relapse prevention work and recognizing early warning signs and educating about the dangers of substance misuse on an already fragile mind. We also do a lot of talks to schools, colleges and youth centres about psychosis how to recognise it and how to live a mentally healthy life so the chances of it happening are slimmer.
Being involved with Early Intervention is like being involved with an exciting movement and i hope it will have a positive effect on the future of young people who before would have been left to live with the devastating long term effects of serious mental illness which are social exclusion, homelessness, unemployment and a deterioration in function.
over the next few posts i will explain Early Intervention more and post some links to some brilliant websites and information.