An Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) programme aims to engage patients in early assessment and phase-specific interventions which are the key elements of the Irish National Clinical Programme for psychosis. This study aims to describe and review the EIP programme offered by Cork’s North Lee Mental Health Services over a 5-year period.

A retrospective descriptive study design was adopted to describe and review the EIP programme, patient demographics and treatments offered in the service over a 5-year period.

A total of 139 patients were accepted into the programme over the 5-year period. The mean age of onset was 30 years (median = 28, SD = 9.9), and the mean duration of untreated psychosis was 8 months (median = 2.5, SD = 15.3). Two-thirds of patients were single on initial assessment, had a history of substance misuse and were unemployed. The majority of the cohort engaged with the keyworkers and occupational therapy but did not complete the full psychological or family programmes offered. Hospital admission was required for 12% of the cohort.

Patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis can successfully be treated in the community with appropriate professional and family support. However, deficiencies were noted in physical health monitoring, as well as in the availability and engagement with family and psychological therapies. Properly resourced early interventions in psychosis teams are necessary to deliver services at internationally recognised standards.

Young Onset Dementia (YOD), defined by first symptoms of cognitive or behavioral decline occurring before the age of 65 years, is relatively rare compared to dementia of later onset, but it is associated with diagnostic difficulty and heavy burden on affected individuals and their informal carers. Existing health and social care structures rarely meet the needs of YOD patients. Internet-based interventions are a novel format of delivering health-related education, counseling, and support to this vulnerable yet underserved group.

The RHAPSODY (Research to Assess Policies and Strategies for Dementia in the Young) project is a European initiative to improve care for people with YOD by providing an internet-based information and skill-building program for family carers. The e-learning program focuses on managing problem behaviors, dealing with role change, obtaining support, and looking after oneself. It will be evaluated in a pilot study in three countries using a randomized unblinded design with a wait-list control group. Participants will be informal carers of people with dementia in Alzheimer's disease or behavioral-variant Frontotemporal degeneration with an onset before the age of 65 years. The primary outcome will be caregiving self-efficacy after 6 weeks of program use. As secondary outcomes, caregivers’ stress and burden, carer health-related quality of life, caring-related knowledge, patient problem behaviors, and user satisfaction will be assessed. Program utilization will be monitored and a health-economic evaluation will also be performed.

The RHAPSODY project will add to the evidence on the potential and limitations of a conveniently accessible, user-friendly, and comprehensive internet-based intervention as an alternative for traditional forms of counseling and support in healthcare, aiming to optimize care and support for people with YOD and their informal caregivers.

Identifying prodromal features that predate the onset of bipolar disorder (BD) may enable the prevention of BD and aid early intervention. This review addresses two key questions: Is there a bipolar prodrome? And, if there is, what are its characteristic features?

A comprehensive search of databases (PubMed, Medline, EMBASE and PsycINFO) supplemented by hand searches was used to identify studies of symptoms preceding the onset of BD.

Fifty-nine studies were identified, of which 14 met inclusion criteria. Symptoms can predate the onset of BD by months to years and can be categorized as attenuated forms of BD symptoms, general symptoms common to a range of mental disorders, and personality traits, particularly cyclothymia. Two studies provided sufficient data to enable sensitivity and specificity to be calculated. Specificity of several of the features was high (>90%) but sensitivity was generally low (all <60%). We propose a model based on the findings in the studies reviewed to illustrate the potential trajectory to BD and the points at which it may be possible to intervene.

Clinical features preceding the onset of BD can be identified. However, conclusions about whether there is a distinct prodrome to BD are restricted by the limitations of current evidence. The high specificity of some features suggests they may be useful in clinical practice. Large-scale longitudinal studies are needed to validate these features and characterize their specificity and sensitivity in independent samples.