Posselt CM, Albert N, Nordentoft M, et al. - In the Danish OPUS trial, significant efficacy of early intervention services for first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders was demonstrated when compared with standard treatment, resulting in implementation of the OPUS intervention in clinical practice. In this work, researchers examined the effectiveness of OPUS treatment in real-world clinical practice and compared it with the efficacy seen in the trial. Patients who received OPUS treatment as part of the original randomized trial were compared with those who received standard treatment in the trial (the control group) and with those who received OPUS treatment after it was implemented in Denmark. A tendency toward lower mortality, fewer and shorter psychiatric admissions, and possibly fewer filled prescriptions of antipsychotics and other psycholeptics after 4 or 5 years were recorded for patients who received OPUS treatment after implementation (N = 3,328) relative to trial study participants. Overall findings suggest that OPUS treatment not only maintained its efficacy after it was implemented as a standard treatment, but also paralleled or surpassed many of the effects observed when the OPUS intervention was delivered in a randomized trial. Further evidence was herein generated in support of implementation and funding of early intervention services worldwide.