Preventive psychiatry: a blueprint for improving the mental health of young people
Key Points
- To review the conceptual foundations and empirical evidence for primary prevention of psychiatric disorders in youth and establish a comprehensive blueprint for future practice and research.
- Appraised major conceptual frameworks, including public health models, Institute of Medicine categories, and neurodevelopmental clinical staging models.
- Synthesized empirical evidence on universal, selective, and indicated primary prevention across psychotic, bipolar, and common mental disorders in youth.
- Indicated interventions using the clinical high-risk paradigm show the strongest empirical validation for psychosis, with emerging utility for bipolar and common mental disorders.
- Selective and universal psychological interventions improve anxiety symptoms, but their capacity to lower disorder incidence remains unproven; physical exercise selectively and universally reduces anxiety disorder incidence.
- Universal public health initiatives targeting school environments and broad social determinants show the strongest potential to decrease overall population risk profiles.
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Discussion
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Implication
Review outlines evidence-based preventive psychiatric interventions in young people, suggesting public health approaches and targeted strategies reduce disorder incidence.
Cite This Study
Fusar‐Poli et al. (2021) studied this question.