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First-ever Study into the Psychological Prevention of Schizophrenia

June 08, 2000

Three in every 100 people will experience psychotic episodes, making psychosis more common that diabetes. Research is now underway into new ways of detecting and treating psychosis, in particular schizophrenia, in its early stages. This is the first-ever attempt to see if schizophrenia can be prevented.

Schizophrenia is a very severe disorder, mainly affecting young adults, which can severely handicap sufferers and deny them a fulfilling life. Its symptoms include hearing voices, bizarre delusions and beliefs, disorders of thinking, the inability to interact with others and a loss of motivation. The illness can sometimes be helped with drugs and psychological treatments but about half of all sufferers fail to recover.

The research project is being carried out by a team from The University of Manchester’s Department of Psychology, and Mental Health Services of Salford. It is designed to test treatments that may prevent serious mental illness (especially schizophrenia) in vulnerable young people.

At present, the average delay between someone experiencing psychotic symptoms and receiving treatment is one year. This study will use methods devised by Australian researchers to identify those at very high risk of developing the disorder and see whether prompt psychological treatment or close monitoring can help to prevent the person developing schizophrenia.

Joint research leader, Professor Richard Bentall, of The University of Manchester, said: “Typically, these young people at very high risk will be showing some minor symptoms of schizophrenia, or be at genetic risk because some other people in the family suffer from full-blown illness. We are now recruiting volunteers for this study, which we hope will show that prompt psychological treatment of these vulnerable young people can reduce their risk of becoming seriously mentally ill.”



Manchester, The University of




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