Background
General background
The word "psychosis" is used to describe conditions that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality. Psychosis is most likely to occur in young adults and is quite common. Around 3 out of every 100 people will experience a psychotic episode, making psychosis more common than diabetes. Most people will make a full recovery from the experience. However, a proportion of these people will go on to develop more severe forms of mental illness that can be extremely distressing. There is emerging evidence that risk indicators can predict psychotic episodes (Morrison et al, 2002; Yung et al 1996, 1998; Falloon et al, 1998).
The EDIE-1 Pilot Trial
The EDIE-1 pilot trial (Morrison et al., 2004 ) found that:
- It is possible to identify indicators of risk that accurately predict transition to psychosis
- Cognitive therapy is an effective psychological intervention in reducing the transition rate in at-risk individuals
- Cognitive therapy produced a significant reduction in the likelihood of being prescribed anti-psychotic medication
- Cognitive therapy produced significant improvements in distressing psychotic experiences
- Monitoring individuals who are at high risk of developing psychosis is effective in reducing the duration of untreated psychosis should transition occur
