Dr Steven Adelsheim Discusses the Importance of Early Diagnosis for Young People With Psychosis

Steven Adelsheim, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, outlined the concept of duration of untreated psychosis, which connects time to treatment with outcomes, particularly in young people with psychosis.

Transcript

Why is early recognition and intervention for young people with psychosis so important?

Well, we know that the data really points that recognizing people early is critical in terms of their long-term outcome. We have this concept, duration of untreated psychosis, which really tells us that the shorter the time is from when someone develops full-blown psychotic symptoms to when they get treatment, the better they do in terms of school, work, adulthood in general 10, 15, 20 years later. So more and more, we recognize that early recognition and early treatment can have a huge and lifelong impact for our young people.