ORIGINAL ARTICLE Five-Year Follow-up of a Randomized Multicenter Trial of Intensive Early Intervention vs Standard Treatment for Patients With a First Episode of Psychotic Illness

Context: Intensive early treatment for first-episode psy-chosis has been shown to be effective. It is unknown if the positive effects are sustained for 5 years. Objective: To determine the long-term effects of an in-tensive early-intervention program (OPUS) for first-episode psychotic patients. Design: Single-blinded, randomized, controlled clini-cal trial of 2 years of an intensive early-intervention pro-gram vs standard treatment. Follow-up periods were 2 and 5 years. Setting: Copenhagen Hospital Corporation and Psy-chiatric Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. Patients: A total of 547 patients with a first episode of psychosis. Of these, 369 patients were participating in a 2-year follow-up, and 301 were participating in a 5-yea