Toward prevention approaches for schizophrenia: An overview of prodromal states, the duration of untreated psychosis, and early intervention paradigms

Abstract

Serious mental illnesses are extremely detrimental to overall health and productivity and are associated with substantial disability throughout the world. Schizophrenia, which occurs in all populations with a prevalence in the range of 1.4 to 4.6 per 1,000 people, is one of the most severe mental illnesses. Schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses traditionally have not been considered widely from the perspective of public health and prevention. Yet in recent decades, schizophrenia researchers increasingly have become interested in prevention-oriented considerations, as evidenced by the growth in research centers focusing on the early course of schizophrenia and even the prodrome of ..