Early intervention in psychosis. Concepts and service development

This is a summary of a lecture given in Portoroz, Slovenia, in 2005. It is clearly totally derivative, and I acknowledge all authors on whom I drew to give the lecture. A literature review has been carried out to describe present knowledge of how psychosis develops, and to describe the concepts of early intervention in psychosis, the critical period, the duration of untreated psychosis, and the prodrome of psychotic illness. Hence, the principles of how an early intervention service intended to deal with first psychotic episodes of illness is described. The setting up of such a service in Luton, Bedfordshire is then described, and its first results are assessed.