Managing Psychotic Illness in Young People: A Practical Overview

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 symptoms-based approach, collating and summarising recent evidence, where it exists, regarding best practice when managing young people affected by schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar affective disorder.