Manual of Critical Psychiatry, Chapter 7: Psychosis (Part Three)

From Mad in Brasil: One argument made for the use of drugs for psychosis was that it is harmful not to intervene early, and the term “duration of untreated psychosis” (DUP) was often used. DUP was claimed to worsen the prognosis for schizophrenia and similar disorders; [16:194, 17:326, 18:79, 18:233, 19:235, 20:416] that it was harmful for the brain to be in a psychotic state; [18:98, 20:416] and that, with early intervention, a chronic course could be avoided for many patients; [17:326] who could learn to deal with their vulnerability. [18:80].

These arguments are not correct. When a drug does not work for a disease but only calms patients, it is not important to use it early in the course of the disease. Furthermore, the research – none of which has been referenced – that claims that the duration of untreated psychosis is related to prognosis is unreliable. People who are not treated early are not comparable to those treated early and are in a worse condition on average, with a number of prognostic factors that indicate a poor long-term outcome, such as homelessness and alcoholism.

Read full article here and English translation here.