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Missed opportunities for early intervention in first episode psychosis in methamphetamine users

This is a copy of the presentation made by Dr Julia Lappin at the 2015 NDARC Annual Research Symposium in Session One.
 
Multiple sources of information suggest a link between methamphetamine use and psychosis, and so methamphetamine users can be considered a group who are at high-risk for future development of psychosis. Psychosis is a severe mental illness which can be highly distressing and disabling. Early intervention services aim to minimise the disability associated with psychotic illness by reducing the delay between the onset of psychotic symptoms and the delivery of treatment. In order to tailor services to detect psychosis early in methamphetamine users we need to understand how and when these individuals seek help prior to first episode psychosis.
 
We examined patterns of service use in New South Wales in the 2 years prior to presentation for first episode psychosis between 2005 and 2015, in order to establish whether there are missed opportunities for early intervention. Data will be presented on the prevalence of methamphetamine- related first episode psychosis, and sociodemographic characteristics of use will be described.