Publish date: 27 March 2023

Depression is common after first episode psychosis (FEP), affecting more than 40 percent of people. We know depression is often associated with suicidal behaviour in early psychosis up to one third of people can feel that life is not worth living and attempt to end their lives, and some of them will unfortunately succeed.

Our Trust has one of the largest early intervention services and is delivering high quality research. A recent NIHR funded trial is ADEPP or Antidepressant for the prevention of depression following first-episode psychosis is a randomised, controlled trial. This is one of the world’s largest trial of the efficacy of sertraline, which is a common first line medication for the treatment of depression in adults, in preventing depression after FEP. A secondary outcome is reduction in suicidality. The ADEPP trial will provide a definitive answer to whether the addition of sertraline following FEP is a clinically useful, acceptable, and cost-effective way of improving outcomes following FEP.

You can see the participant information sheets, with further details about ADEPP Screening Information Sheet and ADEPP Information Sheet. You can contact your clinical care team, or for more information visit their website.