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The early youth engagement (EYE-2) intervention in first-episode psychosis services: pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial and cost-effectiveness evaluation

Abstract:

Background: Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) services improve outcomes for young people, but approximately 30% disengage.

Aims: To test whether a new motivational engagement intervention would prolong engagement and whether it was cost-effective.

Method: We conducted a multicentre, single-blind, parallel-group, cluster randomised controlled trial involving 20 EIP teams at five UK National Health Service (NHS) sites. Teams were randomised using permuted blocks stratified by NHS trust. Participants were all young people (aged 14–35 years) presenting with a first episode of psychosis between May 2019 and July 2020 (N = 1027). We compared the novel Early Youth Engagement (EYE-2) intervention plus standardised EIP (sEIP) with sEIP alone. The primary outcome was time to disengagement over 12–26 months. Economic outcomes were mental health costs, societal costs and socio-occupational outcomes over 12 months. Assessors were masked to treatment allocation for primary disengagement and cost-effectiveness outcomes. Analysis followed intention-to-treat principles. The trial was registered at ISRCTN51629746.

Results: Disengagement was low at 15.9% overall in standardised stand-alone services. The adjusted hazard ratio for EYE-2 + sEIP (n = 652) versus sEIP alone (n = 375) was 1.07 (95% CI 0.76–1.49; P = 0.713). The health economic evaluation indicated lower mental healthcare costs linked to reductions in unplanned mental healthcare with no compromise of clinical outcomes, as well as some evidence for lower societal costs and more days in education, training, employment and stable accommodation in the EYE-2 group.

Conclusions: We found no evidence that EYE-2 increased time to disengagement, but there was some evidence for its cost-effectiveness. This is the largest study to date reporting positive engagement, health and cost outcomes in a total EIP population sample. Limitations included high loss to follow-up for secondary outcomes and low completion of societal and socio-occupational data. COVID-19 affected fidelity and implementation. Future engagement research should target engagement to those in greatest need, including in-patients and those with socio-occupational goals.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1192/bjp.2024.154

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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-7899-8980
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-7065-1157
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-2013-3161


Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Journal:
British Journal of Psychiatry More from this journal
Volume:
226
Issue:
3
Pages:
144-152
Publication date:
2024-11-25
Acceptance date:
2024-07-30
DOI:
EISSN:
1472-1465
ISSN:
0007-1250
Pmid:
39581220


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
2066920
Local pid:
pubs:2066920
Deposit date:
2025-02-01
ARK identifier:

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