title: Prepsychotic treatment for schizophrenia: preventive medicine, social control, or drug marketing strategy?
abstract: The definition of schizophrenia is currently being extended to include a "prepsychotic" phase. Prepsychosis detection and intervention programs have already been established in Australia. These are intended to identify people "at-risk" for schizophrenia and treat them to prevent their transition into psychosis. However, analysis of leading research in this field shows high levels of arbitrariness in the selection of diagnostic indicators and a lack of convincing evidence about the efficacy of treatments. The favored prophylactic treatment is atypical neuroleptic medication, and sponsorship of research is providing manufacturers of these drugs with a ubiquitous presence in the field. Many risks are associated with atypical neuroleptics and adverse reactions include psychosis. Taken together these factors suggest that prepsychotic intervention may be more concerned with expanding the market for atypical neuroleptics than with preventing schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: University of Wollongong, NSW Australia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gosden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D004345:Drug Industry; D006300:Health Services Misuse; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D011316:Preventive Psychiatry / Q000941:ethics*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012926:Social Control, Formal
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs