Optimizing Mental Health Treatment for Emerging Adults with First-Episode Psychosis

Growing data have highlighted that the first few years of psychotic disorders may be a ‘critical period’ during which the receipt of evidence-based treatment may foster disproportionately positive effects on the course of these devastating illnesses. In response to this research, there is a growing international effort to expand access to specialized, comprehensive mental health care to youth and young adults with first-episode psychosis. Yet, despite these advances in care, outcomes among individuals participating in specialized services for first-episode psychosis remain suboptimal. One strategy that may aid in improving outcomes among individuals with first-episode psychosis is greater consideration of the normative developmental processes unfolding during the age when psychotic disorders typically emerge—a developmental stage betwixt and between adolescence and adulthood known as emerging adulthood. Thus, the goal of this paper is to highlight strategies through which mental health treatment may be optimized for individuals with first-episode psychosis by aligning these treatments with the normative developmental processes unfolding during emerging adulthood.