The effectiveness of early psychosis programming for young women: a systematic review protocol.

Abstract

REVIEW QUESTION / OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review is to synthesize the best available evidence on the effectiveness of early psychosis programming for young adult women (aged 18-35 years) living with a psychotic illness. The specific review question is: What is the evidence for the effectiveness of early psychosis programming for young women living with a psychotic illness? INCLUSION CRITERIA Types of participants This review will consider studies that include young women between the ages of 18 and 35 (inclusive), who are living with a psychotic illness and have been enrolled in a program specifically designed for treatment of early symptoms of psychotic illness. Psychotic illness will include schizophrenia spectrum disorders: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder, psychosis not specified, and schizophreniform disorder. Studies that address serious mental illness and include women with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in the sample will be included. Types of intervention(s)/phenomena of interest This systematic review will concentrate on early psychosis intervention studies that have reviewed the efficacy of early psychosis programs (and have separated the data from participants by gender) to determine the level of evidence of effectiveness for women as distinct from effectiveness for the whole sample which includes men. Early psychosis programming includes clinical interventions (e.g. pharmacologic, behavioral, psychological, vocational and family intervention) designed specifically to treat those individuals within the first five years after diagnosis with a psychotic disorder.11 Studies examining programs treating prodromal syndromes will be excluded. Types of outcomes This review will focus on quantitative outcome measures for women such as quality of life, symptom relief and management, relapse and readmission, vocational function, and service use and satisfaction in a group receiving intervention versus a wait-list or “treatment as usual” control group.