Psychosis: conceptual and ethical aspects of early diagnosis and intervention

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Interest in the early identification and treatment of incipient first-episode psychosis is rapidly expanding. In the present review we discuss the major conceptual and ethical problem areas related to research and clinical work in detection and treatment of prepsychosis. RECENT FINDINGS: The recent literature shows that conceptualization of early psychosis is often inconsistent and even misleading. Ethical discussions mostly concern 'false positives' risk assignments, stigmatization, informed consent and acceptability of treatment procedures. SUMMARY: At present there is a lack of consensus regarding which concepts to use in describing prepsychosis in prospective studies, and new concepts are needed for prospective description of emergent psychosis.