This work was also Idelalisib supported in part by the Bowman Family Foundation partnership with the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD).
he detection of psychotic disorder in the prodromal

phases, coupled with specialized early interventions to method prevent transition to overt psychotic disorder, has become the subject of an increasing amount of research and debate.1-8 Although this issue is by no Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical means new,9,10 it is only in the last few years that the outlines of a consensus, based on quantitative arguments, are becoming discernible. These will be discussed in this article, using data from several population-based investigations to illustrate the quantitative arguments. Is there a rationale for schizophrenia prevention in the first place? The answer to this question is evident. If there is a way to prevent an illness that usually has a poor prognosis and starts in young adulthood, every effort should be made Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to put preventive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical measures into place. Work originating in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and elsewhere has suggested that a delay of about 1 year between the onset of positive psychotic symptoms

and the initiation of treatment is not rare.11-13 From the patient’s point of view this contributes not only to severe social stagnation and decline,14,15 but also to severe mental suffering, thus providing a powerful rationale for prompt treatment immediately after the onset of the first Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical psychotic episode. Another rationale

for rapidly commencing treatment is the possibility that the longer the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), the less effective treatment will be in the long term.16,17 It is quite likely that part of the observed association between Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a longer DUP and neuropsychological deterioration is noncausal.18,19 However, the mere possibility that prolonged episodes of psychosis impact negatively on longer-term outcome justifies the need for increased vigilance on the part of the clinician to identify prodromal symptoms.20,21 However, the concept of screening and prevention Anacetrapib in schizophrenia hinges on schizophrenia somehow manifesting itself before the onset of the disease. Therefore, the rationale for schizophrenia prevention, in terms of feasibility needs to be demonstrated first. Evidence has come from two lines of research. The first focused more on the expression of nonpsychopathological vulnerability over the course of development, and the second more on the expression of subclinical psychotic phenomena proximal to illness onset (Figure 1). Figure 1. Prepsychotic expression of illness.