SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Psychosis is disproportionately impacting young people in the United States.
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The National Institute of Health estimates that 100,000 young Americans experience their first episode of psychosis each year.
Now, experts at UCSF are running a clinical trial to identify early psychosis in the critical stages of youth, teenage years and young adulthood.
"The typical age of onset of psychosis and the disorders with psychosis are adolescents and early adulthood, so the teens through the 20s," said Dr. Daniel Mathalon.
Mathalon is a professor of psychiatry at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the Clinical Director of UCSF's Path Program. He cares for patients who have recently developed or are at high risk of developing psychosis.
Mathalon told KCBS Radio reporter Alice Wertz on "As Prescribed" that it's important to address psychosis in its early stages.
"The longer psychotic symptoms persisted without treatment after a first onset of symptoms, the worse the response to treatment and the worse the outcomes for the patients, which really highlighted the importance of early identification and diagnosis and early initiation of treatment," he said.
Mathalon explained that the United States has failed in the past to preserve brain function rather than wait for patients to decline until help is necessary.
UCSF's Path Program is working to right this wrong in care — to create easy access to treatment for patients and their families in the midst of their first psychotic episode. The program even helps patients identify warning signs of a possible impending psychosis.
"What we need now are treatments different than what we used to treat schizophrenia," Mathalon said. "Different medications that have safer profiles, fewer side effects and that can potentially treat young people experiencing these early signs and symptoms, not only to improve the outcomes, but potentially even to prevent the transition to psychosis."
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