Schizophrenia between 1996 and 2000

In itself that probably qualifies as a revolution in the treatment of schizophrenia, a revolution that is only now gathering momentum across the continent. There is consensus that psychotic episodes are "toxic" and tend to virtually cause brain damage. Dr. Malla in London Ontario says the first six months of the first psychotic episode are critical, and disability varies largely on whether someone is treated in that first six months. Key researchers across the continent have been promoting the advantages of early intervention in schizophrenia, and maybe in a few years time it will be expected that an individual will only have one psychotic episode in their life, their first.

Some researchers are pushing the envelope even farther. If the atypical medications are essentially nontoxic, why not prescribe them before the first psychotic episode in people who are at risk for schizophrenia? And so several preventative programs have sprung up, in Australia, the U.S. and even in Canada. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto has had a first psychotic episode program for years, and has recently initiated their PRIME program which has it's own web page.

http://www.clarke-inst.on.ca/care/prime_...

I recommend you take a look at it. I wish it had existed when I was in high school. It is a research program and some people considered at risk for developing schizophrenia will be treated with a low dose of medication and some won't, in order to establish the effectiveness of the medication in preventing a psychotic episode and what that impact will have on outcome.

Some people would question the ethics of such a treatment strategy. Salon magazine, an online journal recently did an article on the ethics of such programs. Essentially the debate revolves around how much harm will the dose of medication cause in a person who wouldn't have developed schizophrenia, and how accurate are the methods of determining who is at risk for developing schizophrenia.

http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999...

I think there will be some research determining an effective risk assessment, and a few more years determining how much impact preventing psychotic episodes has on outcome, and if everything falls into place, this will become the treatment strategy of choice in treating schizophrenia. That is light years farther then what the prevailing image of schizophrenia was in 1996.Only time will tell if it is possible to virtually prevent schizophrenia with the atypical medications.

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