No sensible person would argue against Australian of the Year, psychiatrist Patrick McGorry’s call for early intervention to prevent psychosis; unless of course you know the detail of what Professor McGorry has advocated as early intervention. Put bluntly, Professor McGorry has advocated the use of antipsychotics, with a host of serious potential adverse side effects, on the hunch that adolescents may later become psychotic.
Specifically Professor McGorry is a leading international advocate for the inclusion of Psychosis Risk Syndrome, otherwise known as Attenuated Psychotic Symptoms Syndrome, in the next edition of the clinically dominant Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) due for publication in 2013. He acknowledges that ‘the false positive rate may exceed 50-60%’ nonetheless has justified the use of pre-psychosis drugs by arguing ‘all those identified are by definition seeking help and need some form of care’.[1]
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