The promise of early intervention

The focus of this review is the research and clinical work in early psychosis and early intervention which over the past 10-15 years has had a tremendous impact on the field of schizophrenia. Unparalleled progress has been made in programme and service development with a wide range of reported research results, outcome studies, treatment approaches and new initiatives. Traditional areas are being explored in the first episode that can add to our knowledge of schizophrenia. New areas that have a specific relevance for early intervention such as the duration of untreated psychosis and pathways to care are being widely studied. Despite the criticism of the lack of randomized controlled trials, there is a wealth of positive outcome from both effectiveness studies and limited controlled trials. However, there are still many unanswered issues which are in developing stages or which require further investigation.