About this Research Topic

Background

Psychotic disorders are the most disabling of all mental illnesses. While pharmacotherapy has been the mainstay of clinical management in early and chronic psychosis, evidence for the role of psychosocial treatments has been accruing over the past several decades. With evidence to indicate that the critical period of initiation of combined pharmacological and psychosocial treatments is in the early phase of psychosis, several meta-analysis have stressed on the need to address the complex social, economic and health needs of those affected by a chronic and highly disabling illness such as schizophrenia. Most research has been aligned to a recovery model and have largely focused strategies addressing few needs.

The goal of this Topic is to bring together the various psychosocial interventions across the life time and chronicity of the psychotic illnesses. The objective is to understand the variations in the implementation of psychosocial interventions in early psychosis as well as the chronic mental illnesses. It is also imperative to understand the scientific rigor applied to multi-element intervention research and the application of methods and findings to the real world. The overarching questions that emerge across early psychoses interventions and the psychosocial treatments for the more chronic groups include:
1. What are the recent advances of psychosocial interventions in early psychosis and the multitude of factors that would influence the implementation?
2. How have researchers across high, middle and low income countries formulated and tested interventions for chronic psychotic illnesses?
3. How much does psychosocial intervention include other medical problems that the person with psychosis needs help with, with specific reference to chronic disease?

This volume looks forward to compiling independent research that includes any form of psychosocial interventions done for early and chronic psychosis. Typical themes would be:
• Interventions in activities of daily living
• Interventions in the various cognitive domains
• Social skills interventions
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Interventions for families
• Indigenous modes of interventions (e.g., yoga practice)
• Community based interventions, including the use of existing resources
• Innovative methodological interventions (e.g., mobile technology and applications)
• Role of lay volunteers
• Peer support strategies
• Comprehensive psychosocial intervention including lifestyle modifications.

The focus of the manuscript must address the complex needs of the population under consideration, designing the interventions, use of appropriate evaluations, challenges and real world applications. We will only be considering empirical evidence and data-driven studies.

Keywords: Early psychosis, Intervention, Chronic psychosis, Psychosocial treatments, Indigenous strategies

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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