Rethinking schizophrenia.
How will we view schizophrenia in 2030? Schizophrenia today is a chronic, frequently disabling mental disorder that affects about one per cent of the world's population. After a century of studying schizophrenia, the cause of the disorder remains unknown. Treatments, especially pharmacological treatments, have been in wide use for nearly half a century, yet there is little evidence that these treatments have substantially improved outcomes for most people with schizophrenia. These current unsatisfactory outcomes may change as we approach schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder with psychosis as a late, potentially preventable stage of the illness. This 'rethinking' of schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is profoundly different from the way we have seen this illness for the past century, yields new hope for prevention and cure over the next two decades.
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. tinsel@mail.nih.gov
Thomas R
TR
Insel
D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology