Family work is often provided when young people present with psychotic illness, either on an inpatient basis or before or after admission. Whilst it seems intuitively sensible, for example, to provide information, support for the family and plan family-based support on return home, there is little evidence base for such work in adolescents. The largely adult-based literature is the main source of published work. There is a paucity of randomized controlled research on family work in adolescent psychosis. This article reviews the literature in the light of the practice of one such unit that has for some years routinely embarked upon family work with psychotic young people. It sets out some of the goals of this work and the evidence (or lack of it) supporting those goals. By so doing it highlights the need for more research in this area.
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