Quality prescribing in early psychosis: key pharmacotherapy principles.

Objective: To present a practical, easy-to-implement clinical framework designed to support evidence-based quality prescribing for people with early psychosis.

Method: Identification and explanation of key principles relating to evidence-based pharmacotherapy for people with early psychosis. These were derived from the literature, practice guidelines and clinical experience.

A certificate in youth psychiatry: meeting the training needs of psychiatrists.

Objective: This paper provides the rationale for the development of sub-specialty training in youth psychiatry.

Method: Training needs for youth psychiatry are discussed and the opportunities provided by sub-specialisation in youth psychiatry are presented.

Results: The majority of mental disorders have their onset prior to 25 years.

A systematic review of the frequency and severity of manic symptoms reported in studies that compare phenomenology across children, adolescents and adults with bipolar disorders.

Background: In the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (BD) in children. The notion of prepubertal onsets of BD is not without controversy, with researchers debating whether paediatric cases have a distinct symptom profile or follow a different illness trajectory from other forms of BD. The latter issue is difficult to address without long-term prospective follow-up studies.

Bipolar At-Risk Criteria: An Examination of Which Clinical Features Have Optimal Utility for Identifying Youth at Risk of Early Transition From Depression to Bipolar Disorders.

Background: A clinical and research challenge is to identify which depressed youth are at risk of "early transition to bipolar disorders (ET-BD)." This 2-part study (1) examines the clinical utility of previously reported BD at-risk (BAR) criteria in differentiating ET-BD cases from unipolar depression (UP) controls; and (2) estimates the Number Needed to Screen (NNS) for research and general psychiatry settings.

Methods: Fifty cases with reliably ascertained, ET-BD I and II cases were matched for gender and birth year with 50 UP controls who did not develop BD over 2 years.

Can targeted early intervention improve functional recovery in psychosis? A historical control evaluation of the effectiveness of different models of early intervention service provision in Norfolk 1998-2007.

Aims: This paper assesses the impact of different models of early intervention (EI) service provision on functional recovery and inpatient hospital admission. The study compares the outcome of a comprehensive EI team with a partial model (community mental health team (CMHT) plus specialist support) and traditional care (generic CMHT) over a 10-year period.

Methods: The design is in comparison with historical control.

Social and symptomatic outcomes of first-episode bipolar psychoses in an early intervention service.

Aim: We aimed to establish the relative proportions of all diagnoses in people aged 14-35 years presenting to an early intervention in psychosis service, and to compare demographic variables, symptoms and outcomes between the bipolar psychoses and other psychoses at 3-6 months and 1 year post referral.

Methods: Prospective 3- to 6-month diagnostic and symptomatic assessments were carried out. Diagnoses were established using the Diagnostic Interview for Psychoses - Diagnostic Module.