Ethnic minority groups less likely to receive early psychosis treatments

Talk therapy - iStock People experiencing a psychotic episode for the first time are less likely to receive early psychological interventions in England if they are from an ethnic minority background, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. Some groups were only half as likely to receive early treatment, which is important for improving outcomes later in life for people with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, according to the findings published in Psychiatry Research and led by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health Policy Research Unit at UCL. Lead author, PhD candidate Merle Schlief (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Early intervention is very important for people with psychosis, as treatment early on can greatly improve the long-term prognosis. Offering early intervention, including treatments that are known to be effective such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and family interventions, to everyone who needs it is now a policy-mandated goal in England. "Unfortunately, we found there are stark, pervasive ethnic inequalities in who gets these early interventions for psychosis, both for talk therapy and for family interventions." The researchers reviewed three years of data from the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, including data on 29,610 people with first-episode psychosis who were in contact with Early Intervention in Psychosis services in England. They were reviewing whether people were offered, and whether they received, two of the key non-pharmacological treatments for early psychosis: tailored talk therapy - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) - and family interventions, which support families in helping people with psychosis.