Managing Psychotic Illness in Young People: A Practical Overview

Abstract

Background: The management of early onset psychosis poses a significant challenge to professionals working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Young people with psychotic illness often present with a mixed clinical picture and a wide variety of attendant issues. Over the last decade there has been accumulating research, mainly based on work with adults, regarding the efficacy and effectiveness of medical and psychosocial interventions for patients with schizoaffective spectrum disorders. This article takes a symptomsbased approach, collating and summarising recent evidence, where it exists, regarding best practice when managing young people affected by schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar affective disorder.

Practitioner Review: Schizophrenia spectrum disorders and the at‐risk mental state for psychosis in children and adolescents – evidence‐based management approaches

“…Follow‐up investigations, repeated 6 monthly, aim to identifying changes in such parameters as blood lipids, serum prolactin levels and white cell count, which are potentially associated with treatment (Correll, ; Sikich et al., ). A list of suggested blood tests and their rationale is provided by Tiffin (Tiffin, ). Many antipsychotics are associated with QT c interval prolongation, and a pretreatment electrocardiogram should be performed where feasible.…”

Editorial: Short interventions and self‐help interventions in child and adolescent mental health

“…My final invitation is to read our debate on the role of child and adolescent mental health services to provide preventive interventions for psychosis and psychotic conditions. Among other strategies, low intensity psychosocial interventions are suggested to prevent psychosis (Tiffin & Northover, 2023). Short interventions or self-help interventions providing psychoeducation strategies may also have a role in this area before there is a more significant impact on functioning and quality of life for the young people we treat.…”