NYPSI: WORKS IN PROGRESS SEMINAR On the Origins of Psychiatric Illness: Schizophrenia as an Example with René S. Kahn, M.D., Ph.D. Soul Shadow series. Surreal portrait of female face fused with colored fractal nebula texture on the subject of dreams_ nightmares_ imagination_ mental health_ creativity and human mind
Wed, January 9, 2019, 8 – 10 pm New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
247 East 82nd Street, NYC (btwn 2nd and 3rd Aves) $20 – General Admission
$15 – Student Admission No charge for NYPSI members/students Register HERE, visit nypsi.org or call 212.879.6900
Schizophrenia is currently classified as a psychotic disorder. This paper will attempt to show that this emphasis on psychosis is a conceptual fallacy that has greatly contributed to the lack of progress in our understanding of this illness and hence has hampered the development of adequate treatments. Not only have cognitive and intellectual underperformance consistently been shown to be risk factors for schizophrenia, several studies find that a decline in cognitive functioning precedes the onset of psychosis by almost a decade. Although the question of whether cognitive function continues to decline after psychosis onset is still debated, it is clear that cognitive function in schizophrenia is related to outcome and little influenced by antipsychotic treatment. Thus, our focus on defining (and preventing) the disorder on the basis of psychotic symptoms may be too narrow. Not only should cognition be recognized as the core component of the disorder, our diagnostic efforts should emphasize the changes in cognitive function that occur earlier in development. Putting the focus back on cognition may facilitate finding treatments for the illness before psychosis ever emerges.
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