The costs of early intervention in psychosis: restoring the balance

Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) has become the subject of a rich literature built up over two decades. This has been an international collaborative endeavour involving academic clinicians, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, health services researchers and economists conducting a range of studies producing a wealth of new evidence. Recently, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry published papers calling into question aspects of this evidence base, reprising and extending the debate (Amos, 2012; Castle, 2012). The most recent is a review of studies evaluating economic aspects of EIP services (Amos, 2012). We welcome the open debate of this evidence, but we are concerned that this particular review has fallen short in terms of fairness, balance and, above all, factual accuracy.