ABSTRACT
The dominant bio-genetic model of mental health argues that psychosocial factors have little to do with causing what mental health professionals call ‘schizophrenia’. It is, therefore, widely assumed that little can be done to prevent it. Indeed, a PsycINFO search in January 2012 revealed that of 111,674 research papers ever published on ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘psychosis’, only 96 (0.09%) focus in any way on ‘primary prevention’, and only about 20 of these 96 actually do address primary prevention. Many deal, instead, with young people already identifi ed as being ‘at high risk’ of developing psychosis, which is usually defi ned as ‘indicated’, ‘targeted’ or ‘secondary’ prevention (Chapter 24). The most commonly identifi ed risk factors identifi ed as possible targets for primary prevention are obstetric complications or mother’s health during pregnancy (9) and substance abuse (5). Only one identifi es childhood abuse (Bebbington et al. 2011), and only one focuses on poverty (Read 2010).
