Specialized inpatient treatment for young people with early psychosis: acute-treatment and 12-month results

The objective of the study was to investigate the development of clinical outcomes of young people with early psychosis in a specialized inpatient treatment and assess the feasibility of such an intervention in an inpatient setting. The study was a prospective cohort study of patients with early psychosis treated at the specialized inpatient treatment “Fühinterventions-und Therapiezentrum, FRITZ” (early intervention and therapy center) in Berlin, Germany. The primary outcomes were attitudes towards psychiatric medication and patient satisfaction with treatment after 6 weeks. Secondary outcomes were clinical symptoms, functioning, remission, recovery, all-cause treatment discontinuation, and rehospitalisation at 6 and 12 months after inpatient treatment. We recruited 95 inpatients with early psychosis. Attitudes towards psychiatric medication (Δ(6weeks) = 3.00, d(6weeks) = 0.55; Δ(6mo) = 2.15, d(6mo) = 0.35; Δ(12mo) = 3.03, d(12mo) = 0.52) and patient satisfaction (Δ(6weeks) = 0.21, d(6weeks) = 0.40; Δ(6mo) = 0.32, d(6mo) = 0.43; Δ(12mo) = 0.13, d(12mo) = 0.17) changed with medium effect sizes at six weeks up to a 6- and 12-month follow-up. Clinical outcomes changed significantly with medium-to-large-effect sizes over 12 months CGI(Δ12mo) = 1.64, d(12mo) = −1.12; PANSS total(Δ12mo) = 20.10, d(12mo) = −0.76; GAF(Δ12mo) = 19.58, d(12mo) = 1.25). The all-cause treatment discontinuation rate was 13.69% (n = 13) at a 6-month and 35.79% (n = 34) at a 12-month follow-up. The rehospitalization rate was 30.53% (n = 29) at a 6-month and 43.16% (n = 41) at a 12-month follow-up. Patients with specialized inpatient treatment for early psychosis showed improvements in attitude towards psychiatric medication, patient satisfaction, symptoms, and functioning for up to 12 months. Trial registration: DRKS00024351, 2021/02/11 retrospectively registered. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00406-022-01379-8.