Do Psychological Interventions Work for Psychosis in Adolescents?

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Adolescent Mental Health
• Psychological Interventions

Background:

• Emerging evidence suggests psychological interventions may benefit adolescents with psychosis.
• Interventions include cognitive remediation therapy (CRT), psychoeducation, family therapy, and group psychotherapies.
• This review compares these interventions against treatment as usual (TAU) or other psychological therapies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the effects of various psychological interventions for adolescents with psychosis.
• To compare these interventions with treatment as usual (TAU) or other psychological interventions.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive search for all randomized controlled trials.
• Risk ratio for binary data and mean difference for continuous data were estimated.
• GRADE approach and random-effects model were used for analysis.

Main Results:

• The review included 7 studies with 317 participants.
• Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) showed short-term memory improvement versus TAU (very low-certainty evidence).
• Group psychosocial therapy improved Children's Global Assessment Scale scores versus TAU (very low-certainty evidence).

Conclusions:

• Psychological interventions show potential benefits for adolescents with psychosis.
• However, the current evidence supporting these interventions is of low or very low certainty.