Press Release News Statement Issued on: 14 August 2000 For immediate release Issued by: Susan Kirkwood, Chairman, National Schizophrenia Fellowship (Scotland) International research on first psychosis Scottish carers and relatives are taking place in a 6-country project on the importance of help at the time of a relative's first psychosis. EUFAMI, the European Federation of Associations of Families of Mentally Ill People, has taken the initiative in studying what kind of help relatives, family members and carers think is important when they are confronted with a relatives' first psychosis. NSF(Scotland) believes that this subject, and therefore this research, is of great importance and we are supporting this survey. A random sample of Scottish family members and carers are being given the opportunity to express their opinion about the help which they think should be given when someone experiences their first psychosis. It will give us information which can be used to promote the interests of people with psychosis, and their family members. Results will be available towards the end of 2000. (ends) For further information, email: [email protected] or go to the EUFAMI website. Background EUROPEAN "FIRST EPISODE" RESEARCH Families in Spain, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Scotland and Sweden are involved in a scientific study of their experiences when they were confronted with a relative's first episode of psychosis. The research has been commissioned by EUFAMI (the European Federation of Associations of Families of Mentally Ill People) and is being carried out by researchers from the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam and research co-ordinators from member associations of EUFAMI. The research follows similar research carried out in 1997/98 in the Netherlands. The research data will be collected from families chosen at random. Questionnaires will be completed by the end of September. The results will be presented at a EUFAMI meeting and submitted to a scientific journal for publication. The research is supported by a grant from Janssen Pharmaceutica.