The Early Intervention For Psychosis: Not Just Popping Pills
A controversy is brewing on the website Psychology Today and subsequently in The Australian newspaper. At the heart of the issue is US psychiatrist Dr Allen Frances’ comments on the Australian Federal Government’s planned mental health reforms in early psychosis.
Dr Frances has linked these reforms with another issue that is being hotly debated in the psychiatric literature: whether to create a new diagnosis of “risk syndrome for psychosis” or “attenuated psychosis syndrome” in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
These two issues have become confused by Dr Frances and many other commentators. Hopefully this piece will allay some of this confusion.
First, the proposed “risk syndrome” diagnosis.
This diagnosis is based on work conducted in...