Cited by 456Schizophrenia research and treatmentBipolar Disorder and TreatmentMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Early interventions to prevent psychosis: systematic review and meta-analysis

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Stafford, M. R., Jackson, H., Mayo-Wilson, E., Morrison, A. P., Kendall, T.·2013·BMJ

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether any psychological, pharmacological, or nutritional interventions can prevent or delay transition to psychotic disorders for people at high risk. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: Embase, Medline, PreMedline, PsycINFO, and CENTRAL were searched to November 2011 without restriction to publication status. REVIEW METHODS: Randomised trials comparing any psychological, pharmacological, nutritional, or combined intervention with usual services or another treatment. Studies of participants with a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were excluded. Studies were assessed for bias, and relevant limitations were considered in summarising the results. RESULTS: 11 trials including 1246 participants and eight comparisons were included. Median sample size of included trials was 81 (range 51-288). Meta-analyses were performed for transition to psychosis, symptoms of psychosis, depression, and mania; quality of life; weight; and discontinuation of treatment. Evidence of moderate quality showed an effect for cognitive behavioural therapy on reducing transition to psychosis at 12 months (risk ratio 0.54 (95% confidence interval 0.34 to 0.86); risk difference -0.07 (-0.14 to -0.01). Very low quality evidence for omega-3 fatty acids and low to very low quality evidence for integrated psychotherapy also indicated that these interventions were associated with reductions in transition to psychosis at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: Although evidence of benefits for any specific intervention is not conclusive, these findings suggest that it might be possible to delay or prevent transition to psychosis. Further research should be undertaken to establish conclusively the potential for benefit of psychological interventions in the treatment of people at high risk of psychosis.

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  • During lifespan, there are sensitive periods where risk and protective factors have greater impact and long-lasting consequences.

    “During a lifespan, there are sensitive periods where risk and protective factors may have greater impact and long-lasting consequences.16,40”

    From Preventive strategies for mental health (2018) · cites this paper as [40]

  • Previous pairwise meta-analyses in this field had methodological limitations, including heterogeneous interventions, non-standard clinical high risk samples, non-randomized trials, pooling of time-dependent outcomes, and poor meta-analytical approaches.

    “The other meta-analyses were affected by mistakes 19 or methodological limitations”
  • Previous pairwise meta-analyses in this field had methodological limitations, including heterogeneous interventions, non-standard clinical high risk samples, non-randomized trials, pooling of time-dependent outcomes, and poor meta-analytical approaches.

    “The other meta-analyses were affected by mistakes 19 or methodological limitations”
  • Evidence converges on a lack of significant benefit for clinical outcomes other than transition to psychosis, including attenuated symptom severity, functioning, depressive comorbidities, distress and quality of life.

    “There is also converging lack of significant benefits on other clinical outcomes besides transition to psychosis, such as attenuated symptom severity 14,15,96 , functioning 10,14,18 , depressive comorbidities 15 , distress 14 , and quality of life 14,15 .”
  • The Stafford et al meta-analysis analyzed 11 studies, but one was open-label and another did not use standard clinical high risk for psychosis criteria, leaving nine studies with 1,043 patients in common with the current study.

    “For example, the metaanalysis by Stafford et al 15 -on which current clinical guidelines are based -analyzed 11 studies, but one of them included an open-label trial (N5124) 94 and another did not assess participants against standard CHR-P criteria (N579) 20 , leaving nine studies (N51,043) that are in common with the current”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [11]National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The NICE guideline on core interventions in the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults in primary and secondary care. Updated edition. NICE, 2009.
  2. [21]Review manager (RevMan) version 5.0. Nordic Cochrane Centre, Cochrane Collaboration, 2008.

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Authors
Stafford, M. R., Jackson, H., Mayo-Wilson, E., Morrison, A. P., & Kendall, T.
Affiliations
  • Royal College of Psychiatrists (GB)
  • University of Manchester (GB)
  • Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
Corresponding author
Kendall, T.
Venue
BMJ
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2013-01-18
Volume
346
Issue
jan18 1
Pages
f185-f185
ISSN
1756-1833 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2024581069
Cited by
456
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 64 · 2014: 52 · 2013: 25
FWCI
8.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • BMJ (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Bipolar Disorder and Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
psychosis prevention, early intervention, high-risk groups, transition to psychosis, cognitive behavioral therapy, omega-3 fatty acids, integrative psychotherapy, dietary intervention, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, mania, quality of life, treatment discontinuation
MeSH terms
Clinical Trials as Topic, Combined Modality Therapy, Humans, Psychotic Disorders, Risk Factors, Antipsychotic Agents, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dietary Supplements, Early Diagnosis

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