The 'Parma-Early Psychosis' programme: Characterization of help-seekers with first episode psychosis

Research on early psychosis paradigm has demonstrated the importance of early intervention (EI) in reducing illness severity and persistence. From January 2013, the Parma Department of Mental Health developed a specific care pathway [the 'Parma-Early Psychosis' (Pr-EP) programme] as a diffused EI infrastructure aimed to offer an evidence-based protocol of care to help-seekers with a first episode psychosis (FEP). Aim of this study was to investigate sources of referral, drop-out rate, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients enrolled in the Pr-EP programme during the first 6 years of activity.

Participants (n = 279) were individuals (aged 12-54 years) completing an ad-hoc socio-demographic/clinical schedule.

At baseline, the most frequent diagnoses were schizophreniform disorder (30.5%) and schizophrenia (29.4%). Only 31 (11.1%) subjects dropped out during the first year of treatment. FEP participants were mainly referred by general practitioners (36.9%) and emergency room/general hospital (28.7%). FEP individuals who were referred by emergency room/general hospital showed a higher percentage of current suicidal ideation compared to those entering the Pr-EP protocol through other sources of referrals.

EI in FEP help-seekers within Italian public mental health services is feasible and desirable, also in adolescence, where the risk of falling through the child-adult service gap is high.