Abstract
Early intervention in mental health difficulties makes common sense, but it has not gained much interest until relatively recently. Although slow to start, early intervention in treatment of mental disorders marks a departure from kraeapilinian fatalism which gained a strong international momentum not only from service provision, but research aspects as well.
This concise volume book is written by international experts and researchers in the field. This book was developed following an international workshop organized by the World Psychiatric Association and the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists. Although the bulk of the book covers the subject of psychosis, I was glad that a number of chapters are dedicated in dealing with early intervention for other mental health disorders, for example, Bipolar affective disorder, Personality Disorder, and one chapter on early intervention in alcohol use in younger individuals.
There are in total 17 chapters in the book.
Mario Maj, the past president of the World Psychiatric Association wrote a preface for the book. Following this in the first chapter of the book, the editors set the scene by introducing the concept of Early Intervention in psychiatry, its historical development and elaborate what is dealt in later chapters. In the second chapter, Norman Sartorius writes about stigma. He has described the development of stigma, impact of stigma on treatment of psychiatric disorders and how early intervention can reduce the problem of stigma. I find this chapter valuable.
After a chapter on the role of culture in early Interventions by the editors, two chapters are dedicated to discuss the brain changes in the early course and in established Schizophrenia. These two chapters are densely packed with up to date information. The next chapter deals with detecting the early signs of an emerging psychosis. As a Psychiatrist working in an Early Intervention Team, I find the postulated framework in the development of a full blown psychosis from an asymptomatic risk stage fascinating and clinically valuable.
The subsequent five chapters delve in the development of Early Intervention services across the globe, mainly in the East Asia, including one chapter on help seeking behaviors in first episode psychosis in London for ethnic minority groups.
After this a couple of chapters are dedicated to discuss about the inherent difficulties using early intervention approaches in bipolar affective Disorder and need for more research. Toward the end of the book, there are two chapters which I find valuable. Those two chapters are on personality Disorders written by John Oldham and Andrew Channen. These two chapters deal with rationale and efforts to provide early intervention approaches in personality disorder. The last chapter by the editors makes recommendations to researchers, clinicians, and policy makers.
In the preface of the book, Mario Maj hoped for a wide readership for this book including scholars and researchers, clinicians including some users and their carers. I feel that this book has masterfully achieved the goal of serving a wider audience. This book is not for psychiatric professionals only, anyone interested in mental health can benefit from reading from this book.
[14]. When the social and cultural factors are neglected in the assessment of patients, misdiagnosis and perpetuation of clinical stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, gender, among other factors occur, leading to disparities in mental healthcare [33]. Indeed, in the US there is a long history of misdiagnosis of schizophrenia and other psychosis related disorders among African-Americans, dating as far back as the early 1900s [15,33]. . . .
. . . [33]. Indeed, in the US there is a long history of misdiagnosis of schizophrenia and other psychosis related disorders among African-Americans, dating as far back as the early 1900s [15,33]. Similar misdiagnosis has been observed among people of African and Caribbean descent in the UK [34]. . . .