Early intervention in psychosis: the critical‐period hypothesis

@article{Birchwood1998EarlyII,
  title={Early intervention in psychosis: the critical‐period hypothesis},
  author={Max Birchwood and Pauline Todd and Chris Jackson},
  journal={International Clinical Psychopharmacology},
  year={1998},
  volume={13},
  pages={S31–S40}
}
The early phase of psychosis may be considered as a critical period that offers major opportunities for secondary prevention of impairments and disabilities accompanying psychosis. Prospective studies of first-episode schizophrenics support the critical period hypothesis and indicate that progression, where it occurs, does so early in the disorder, with patients reaching a relatively stable plateau within 2 years of the first psychotic episode. This suggests a window of opportunity for… 
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TLDR
Results provide qualified support for the critical period hypothesis and could be extended to include the prodrome as well as early psychosis, and duration of untreated illness has any independent effect on outcome.
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