New quality standard on psychosis and schizophrenia - UK

A new treatment (or updated) treatment guideline has come out in the UK. Here is more information on this news, that originally came out a week or two ago:

Currently, in both hospital and community settings, antipsychotic drugs are the primary treatment for psychosis and schizophrenia. There is well-established evidence for their efficacy in both treating acute psychotic episodes and preventing relapse over time in conjunction with psychological interventions.

However, despite this, considerable problems remain. A significant proportion of service users, up to 40 per cent, have a poor response to conventional antipsychotic drugs and continue to show moderate to severe psychotic symptoms (both positive and negative).

Early intervention

In the first quality statement, NICE recommends that adults with a first episode of psychosis start treatment in early intervention in psychosis services within 2 weeks of referral. This is important as early intervention in psychosis services can improve clinical outcomes, such as admission rates, symptoms and relapse for people with a first episode of psychosis.

CBTp

The second statement highlights the importance of offering adults with psychosis or schizophrenia cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp). CBTp in conjunction with antipsychotic medication, or on its own if medication is declined, can improve outcomes such as psychotic symptoms. It should form part of a broad-based approach that combines different treatment options tailored to the needs of individual service users.

Read the full story here:

https://www.nice.org.uk/news/article/new-quality-standard-on-psychosis-and-schizophrenia

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