Barriers to the Uptake of Psychological Therapy in Early Psychosis: An Audit of Routine Clinical Practice

Psychological therapies are a mainstream treatment for people with psychosis. The introduction of early intervention services (EI) has further stressed the importance of this therapeutic approach with current clinical guidelines recommending that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBTp) should be offered to all service users presenting with the early signs of psychosis. Access to psychological therapies for people with psychosis remains poor with studies suggesting that only between 10 and 40% of service users actually receive CBTp. Although there is evidence that CBTp can achieve significant benefit, we still have limited knowledge of what predicts the offer of psychological therapy, its acceptance, engagement and discontinuation. This is a particularly important question at a time when there is a national requirement to expand access but there are limited resources available to deliver these interventions in a timely fashion.