Friday, March 24, 2006

Schizophrenia: Early treatment important

How important is early care for schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia.com’s excellent news blog highlights the new Harvard Mental Health Letter article reporting that “research is beginning to show that early treatment of schizophrenia is very important.”

Past studies have documented some of the adverse effects of delaying treatments such as: increased treatment resistance; worsening severity of symptoms; increased hospitalizations; and delayed remission of symptoms. Such studies support the contention that early intervention is important for clinical reasons.