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SM's avatar

Fantastic review! Thanks.

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Jed's avatar

A fascinating topic, well explained. As a layperson & parent, one anxiety I have about early intervention in psychosis is its potential to justify an over-use of antipsychotic drugs, especially in young people. You do a good job describing the profile of a preventative drug, like statin -- it must be well tolerated and have few negative side effects. My purely anecdotal experience of the world is that antipsychotic drugs impair intellectual development, creativity, and sense of self. Your position in the UK, working within the context of the NHS, might be different from my perspective here from America, where I see many institutional incentives for at-risk youth programs, rehab and halfway houses, to over-rely on antipsychotic drugs to make their jobs easier, frankly. The worst-case scenario, which should be avoided at all costs, is that these drugs become a mechanism of control rather than a treatment. The potential is there, especially in a private and privatized system.

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