Key issues that will be covered:

• Recognition of schizophrenia and criteria for diagnosis, including the recognition and management of at-risk mental states and early psychosis before a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia has been made.
• Psychological or psychosocial interventions: CBT, cognitive remediation, counselling and supportive psychotherapy, family interventions (including family therapy), psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, psychoeducation, social skills training, arts therapies.
• All antipsychotics licensed for the treatment of schizophrenia in the UK, including considerations related to the age of the child or young person, such as modifications to the dose. Note that guideline recommendations will not normally fall outside licensed indications. Exceptionally, and only if clearly supported by evidence, use outside a licensed indication may be recommended (for this guideline a number of drugs will be reviewed that are licensed for adults with schizophrenia but not for children or young people). The guideline will assume that prescribers will use a drug’s summary of product characteristics to inform decisions made with individual service users.
• Starting treatment with antipsychotic medication and a psychological or psychosocial intervention.
• Treatment of an acute psychotic episode with antipsychotic medication and a psychological or psychosocial intervention.
• Promoting recovery after an acute psychotic episode, using antipsychotic medication and a psychological or psychosocial intervention.
• Assessment and management (for example, routine blood tests and physical monitoring) of known side effects of antipsychotic medication, and of the child or young person’s physical health.
• Treatment options if antipsychotic medication and a psychological intervention is ineffective and/or not tolerated.
• The organisation and integration of services, outlining a care pathway including primary care, CAMHS, EIS, and tertiary CAMHS (inpatient services).
• Ways to improve access to, and engagement with, mental health services for children and young people and particularly those from black and minority ethnic groups.
• Recommendations categorised as good practice points in NICE clinical guideline 82 will be reviewed for their relevance to children and young people with schizophrenia (including issues around consent and advance directives).

Issues that will not be covered:

• Validity of diagnosis.
• Primary prevention (although management of prodromal and psychotic symptoms before formal diagnosis will be covered; see 4.1.1 b).
• Management of violence in children and young people with schizophrenia.