Advances in Duration of Untreated Psychosis and Its Early Intervention

Abstract

Mental illness usually involves a range of cognitive, behavioral, and affective symptoms associated with impaired occupational or social functioning. Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is considered as an important predictor and independent risk factor for the prognosis of patients with mental disorders, a longer DUP is associated with poor prognosis. Meanwhile, early intervention measures to shorten DUP have gradually attracted increasing attention from both domestic and international researchers. In this paper, the related studies on DUP were reviewed and analyzed, the concept, measurement tools, neurobiological mechanisms of DUP, the relationship between DUP and prognosis, and early intervention measures to shorten DUP were described, in order to provide ideas and reference for developing clinical intervention strategies for DUP.

Keywords

• mental disorders|schizophrenia|duration of untreated psychosis|early medical intervention|prognosis|review