Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? Risk Reduction and Early Detection
Author: Ukrainian Psychological Hub · Published: October 9, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Can schizophrenia be prevented? At present, there is no scientifically established method that reliably prevents schizophrenia in a particular person. Schizophrenia arises through complex interactions among genetic susceptibility, neurodevelopment, environmental exposures, and other factors. Some exposures associated with psychosis risk can be reduced, and emerging symptoms can be assessed promptly. Early intervention can improve outcomes, yet a reduction in risk, early identification of psychosis, and effective treatment after onset represent different goals.
For readers concerned about themselves, their children, or another family member, the practical question is what can be changed now, what deserves clinical assessment, and which claims are supported by research. The strongest immediate steps are to avoid cannabis and other psychoactive substances associated with psychosis, seek timely assessment for concerning changes, address treatable mental health and medical conditions, and preserve access to supportive care. These steps support health and may reduce relevant risks; none provides a guarantee against schizophrenia. The National Institute of Mental Health's schizophrenia guide and World Health Organization's schizophrenia fact sheet describe the disorder's multifactorial origins and the importance of treatment and recovery.
I. What Would It Mean to Prevent Schizophrenia?
Prevention has several meanings in medicine, and this distinction is essential for interpreting schizophrenia research. Primary prevention aims to stop a disorder from developing in the first place. Indicated prevention targets people with emerging symptoms or a clinically identified high-risk state, with the goal of reducing symptoms, reducing the probability of a future psychotic episode, or improving functioning. Early detection identifies people who may already have psychosis or are experiencing a clinically important change. Secondary and tertiary interventions after illness onset seek to reduce the duration of untreated symptoms, prevent avoidable complications or relapse, and support recovery.
Schizophrenia is a clinical disorder diagnosed through a comprehensive evaluation of characteristic symptoms, duration, functioning, and alternative explanations. Psychosis is a clinical syndrome involving disturbances in the interpretation of reality, potentially including hallucinations, delusions, or disorganized thought. A person can experience psychosis in the context of schizophrenia, a mood disorder, substance exposure, delirium, a neurological condition, or another medical problem. A single hallucination, suspicious thought, family history, or unusual screening result does not establish schizophrenia. Our schizophrenia overview explains the disorder, while psychosis symptoms and causes addresses the broader syndrome.
Studies of clinical high risk for psychosis often measure the emergence of any threshold psychotic disorder, rather than schizophrenia specifically. Research showing that an intervention improves sleep, distress, functioning, or even psychosis-related outcomes cannot automatically establish that it prevents a later diagnosis of schizophrenia. Equally, finding an exposure associated with illness cannot tell us how many individual cases avoiding that exposure would prevent.
II. Why There Is No Guaranteed Prevention Method
Schizophrenia is heterogeneous. Research implicates many genetic variants of individually small effect, aspects of early brain development, environmental and social exposures, and interactions among them. Risk is distributed across populations and changes over development; no single pathway explains every case. NIMH states that having a family member with schizophrenia raises risk but does not mean other relatives will develop it, and that no single gene causes the disorder on its own. See the NIMH explanation of genetic, environmental, and brain-related factors.
Researchers can estimate associations and sometimes identify plausible biological mechanisms. Translating these results into prevention requires stronger evidence: a modifiable exposure, evidence that changing it alters future disease incidence, and an intervention whose benefits outweigh harms. Controlled experiments are unavailable or unethical for many developmental risk factors. Observational studies are also affected by socioeconomic conditions, earlier symptoms that precede the exposure, shared genetic influences, and imperfect measurement. A population association therefore remains different from a personalized prediction or proof of preventability.
III. What Risk Factors Can Be Changed?
1. Cannabis exposure, particularly frequent or high-potency use
Cannabis use is one of the most practically relevant modifiable exposures in psychosis prevention discussions. Large observational studies associate cannabis exposure with psychotic disorders, with stronger associations reported for frequent use and higher-THC products. In a multicenter case-control study across European and Brazilian sites, daily cannabis use was associated with higher odds of psychotic disorder than never-use; the association was greater for daily high-potency use. This study examined psychotic disorder broadly, used an observational design, and could not establish the precise outcome for any one individual. See Di Forti and colleagues' EU-GEI study.
A sensible risk-reduction choice, especially for adolescents, young adults, people with a personal history of psychotic symptoms, and those with a family vulnerability, is to avoid cannabis and high-THC products. If someone is already using cannabis, a nonjudgmental clinical conversation can address patterns of use, dependence, anxiety, sleep, and safer routes to stopping. The National Academies review of cannabis and mental health evaluates the association with schizophrenia and other psychoses. Readers seeking the full evidence, including questions of confounding and causality, can consult Cannabis and Psychosis: Risk, Evidence, and Clinical Implications.
Population-attributable estimates sometimes quoted in headlines depend on causal assumptions, exposure prevalence, and local conditions. They are not the percentage of all schizophrenia cases that an individual can personally prevent. Avoiding cannabis is a meaningful risk-reduction strategy, while its specific absolute preventive effect against schizophrenia remains uncertain.
2. Other drugs and medication-related risks
Stimulants and other psychoactive substances may cause or aggravate psychotic symptoms in some circumstances. Substance-induced psychosis has its own diagnostic pathway and may require urgent evaluation, especially with severe agitation, confusion, fever, intoxication, or withdrawal. Avoiding nonprescribed psychoactive drugs is a prudent measure for overall mental health, and clinicians should review prescribed medications when symptoms begin after a new treatment or dose change.
The prevention claim should remain precise: reducing a substance exposure may reduce that exposure's associated harms or episodes of substance-related psychosis; it does not prove that schizophrenia would otherwise have developed. Someone taking prescribed medication should discuss concerns with the prescriber rather than abruptly stopping treatment.
3. Childhood adversity, chronic stress, and social conditions
Childhood adversity, exposure to violence, marginalization, and certain forms of social disadvantage are associated with later psychotic experiences or disorders in observational research. Their pathways may involve stress responses, social development, health inequalities, and correlated family or environmental exposures. These associations are important for public health, trauma-informed care, child protection, and social policy, while causal pathways and the size of preventable effects remain uncertain.
Reducing abuse, ensuring safe housing, providing predictable care, responding to bullying, and supporting people facing discrimination have broad, independent benefits. Families should never interpret schizophrenia as evidence that a parent failed to manage stress or caused the disorder. Protective relationships and access to mental health support matter regardless of whether a later psychotic disorder occurs.
4. Pregnancy, birth, and early development
Research has linked some prenatal infections, nutritional deficiencies, obstetric complications, and other developmental circumstances with schizophrenia risk at the population level. Such associations are shaped by multiple factors and cannot establish that a particular complication causes schizophrenia in a specific person. NIMH discusses viral exposures and nutritional problems before birth among environmental factors being investigated in schizophrenia. See the NIMH account of environmental risk.
Following established prenatal care, treating maternal medical conditions, maintaining recommended nutrition, and avoiding harmful exposures are valuable for maternal and child health. They should be recommended according to obstetric guidance, rather than marketed as a proven schizophrenia-prevention program. There is no validated prenatal diet, vitamin regimen, supplement, or screening test that guarantees protection against schizophrenia.
5. Sleep disruption and psychological distress
Sleep disturbances and escalating distress can accompany an emerging mental health difficulty, exacerbate symptoms, or occur independently. Maintaining a regular sleep opportunity, addressing persistent insomnia, managing substance exposure, and seeking care for anxiety or depression can improve well-being and help clinicians understand changes in functioning. Evidence that sleep-focused interventions prevent a future schizophrenia diagnosis is much more limited than evidence for treating the sleep problem itself.
Severe sleep loss can also occur with mania, substance use, or other medical and psychiatric presentations. When reduced sleep accompanies marked behavioral change, unusual beliefs, disorganized behavior, or rapidly worsening distress, it merits assessment rather than reassurance based on lifestyle advice alone.
IV. What Cannot Currently Be Used as a Prevention Test?
Genetic tests and family history
Family history is clinically relevant, but schizophrenia is not determined by a single gene or Mendelian inheritance pattern in most cases. Polygenic risk scores are research tools whose performance and portability vary across populations. They cannot reliably decide whether a specific healthy person will or will not develop schizophrenia, and a high estimated genetic risk does not by itself establish a clinical high-risk mental state.
Genetic counseling may be appropriate in selected family circumstances, especially when there are broader medical or reproductive questions. Commercial claims that DNA tests can accurately forecast or prevent schizophrenia should be treated with caution.
Brain scans, blood tests, and online questionnaires
No routinely accepted brain scan, biomarker, blood test, or consumer questionnaire establishes a future schizophrenia diagnosis in an asymptomatic individual. Clinical brain imaging or laboratory testing can be important when evaluating symptoms for medical causes; that is a different purpose. Screening responses may signal a need to talk to a professional, but they are neither a diagnosis nor an individualized probability of transition.
The recommended pathway is clinical assessment guided by symptoms, development, medical history, substance exposures, and functional change. For the wider diagnostic process, see How Is Schizophrenia Diagnosed?.
V. Early Detection: Which Changes Deserve Attention?
The changes preceding a first episode can be nonspecific. They may include increasingly unusual or distressing interpretations of events, withdrawal from familiar activities, a decline in school or work performance, altered sleep, anxiety, concentration difficulties, and noticeable changes in communication or behavior. Such experiences also occur with depression, anxiety, trauma-related conditions, sleep problems, neurodevelopmental differences, and substance use. They should be evaluated in context rather than converted into a symptom checklist for self-diagnosis.
More concerning developments include hearing or seeing things others do not perceive, strongly held beliefs that create intense distress or impair functioning, increasingly incoherent speech, extreme suspiciousness, or a rapid decline in the ability to meet ordinary needs. The person's distress, safety, level of insight, medical condition, and degree of functional change influence how urgently to act. NIMH outlines early warning signs and recommends contacting a qualified health professional in its guide to understanding psychosis.
A useful approach for family members is to describe observations concretely: “You have seemed frightened and have missed classes for two weeks; I want to help you find someone who can assess what is happening.” Avoid arguing over the literal truth of a distressing belief or assuming the person has schizophrenia. Offer to help arrange care and ask what support would feel acceptable.
Our article on early signs of schizophrenia and changes before psychosis explores how clinicians interpret these patterns without treating them as a prediction.
VI. Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: What the Label Means
Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P), also called an at-risk mental state in some services, refers to a specialist-assessed clinical presentation involving particular symptom patterns and often functional difficulties. Assessment instruments are administered and interpreted by trained clinicians; ordinary worry about schizophrenia, having a relative with the disorder, or endorsing unusual experiences on a web questionnaire does not automatically establish CHR-P.
Clinical approaches may consider attenuated psychotic symptoms, brief intermittent psychotic symptoms, and selected combinations of familial vulnerability with functional deterioration. The precise framework and eligibility criteria vary by service and research instrument. The label is designed to identify people who may benefit from assessment, monitoring, and care, rather than to assign an inevitable future diagnosis.
In a 2021 meta-analysis of 130 studies involving 9,222 people assessed at clinical high risk, the pooled cumulative proportion transitioning to psychosis was approximately 15% after one year, 19% after two years, and 25% after three years. There was substantial variation between studies. These are group estimates from help-seeking or referred clinical populations, not general-population forecasts; importantly, most participants had not developed a threshold psychotic disorder at these time points. See Salazar de Pablo and colleagues' updated meta-analysis.
The appropriate clinical goal includes relief of current symptoms and distress, improvement in functioning, care for co-occurring conditions, and supportive follow-up. Someone can need care now even if they never experience psychosis. Read the dedicated discussion of clinical high risk, attenuated symptoms, and monitoring.
VII. Can Therapy Stop Psychosis From Developing?
This is an area of active research with an important distinction between a guideline recommendation and demonstrated prevention of disease. The NICE guideline for adults at increased risk of psychosis recommends individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with or without family intervention, and evidence-based care for anxiety, depression, or substance misuse when present. It also advises against prescribing antipsychotic medication simply to prevent psychosis in these at-risk patients. The exact recommendations appear in NICE CG178, section 1.2.
CBT can work on distress, coping responses, interpretations of unusual experiences, and day-to-day functioning. Family support can improve understanding and communication. These are meaningful clinical outcomes regardless of whether a threshold psychotic episode later occurs.
However, evidence that psychological interventions consistently prevent transition is less persuasive than early optimistic research suggested. A 2025 systematic review and updated meta-analysis by the World Psychiatric Association Preventive Psychiatry section incorporated larger randomized trials and concluded that there is no robust evidence favoring any particular intervention to prevent transition to psychosis in CHR-P populations. The authors identified limitations in trials, outcome definitions, and available treatments. This does not mean every intervention is ineffective for distress or functioning; it means a reliable prevention claim has not been demonstrated. Read Minichino and colleagues, Molecular Psychiatry (2025).
A shared decision should therefore focus on the person's present needs, anticipated benefits, treatment burden, preferences, and realistic uncertainty. Programs should avoid promising that therapy can eliminate schizophrenia risk.
VIII. Should Antipsychotic Medication Be Given Before Psychosis Starts?
Antipsychotic medication has established roles in treating diagnosed psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia, when clinically indicated. That evidence cannot be transferred automatically to healthy people with a family history or to someone whose presentation has been assessed as CHR-P.
For a person considered at increased risk of psychosis, NICE specifically recommends against antipsychotic medication for the purpose of decreasing risk or preventing psychosis. Potential harms include metabolic changes, movement-related side effects, sedation, and other adverse effects requiring individualized monitoring. Medication decisions for other established conditions should follow their own indications rather than a prevention theory. See NICE prevention recommendations.
If psychosis is already present, timely evaluation can lead to a different treatment plan, which may include medication, psychological care, family support, and coordinated specialty services. A person already receiving antipsychotics should not discontinue them on the basis of prevention guidance; changes require discussion with the treating clinician. Our schizophrenia treatment guide explains condition-specific treatment options.
IX. How Early Treatment Changes the Outlook
The best-established early-intervention benefit comes after the onset of psychosis. When people receive suitable assessment and care sooner, they may reduce the duration of untreated psychosis and improve opportunities for symptom relief, education, employment, relationships, and quality of life. Early treatment is valuable whether the final diagnosis is schizophrenia, a mood disorder with psychotic features, a substance-related condition, or another cause.
Coordinated specialty care (CSC) is a US team-based approach to first-episode psychosis that integrates medication management, psychotherapy, family education and support, supported work or education, and individualized case management. NIMH's RAISE research found that coordinated specialty care outperformed typical community care across important clinical and functional outcomes. The NIMH RAISE summary explains the program and its findings.
CSC helps people after their first psychotic episode; it should not be described as proof that schizophrenia can be prevented in the general population. Some people recover from an episode without developing schizophrenia, while others need longer-term support. Details of the initial care pathway are in First-Episode Psychosis: Early Signs, Assessment, Treatment, and Recovery.
X. What About Preventing Relapse After a Diagnosis?
Relapse prevention is another distinct clinical goal. People who have already been diagnosed with schizophrenia may benefit from individualized maintenance treatment, support for medication decisions and adherence, family psychoeducation, attention to physical health and substance use, and an agreed plan for responding to early signs of deterioration.
For some people, staying engaged in continuing treatment reduces the likelihood of another episode and related disruption. Plans must reflect prior episodes, adverse effects, preferences, pregnancy considerations where relevant, psychosocial resources, and ongoing risk. This is secondary prevention after a clinical diagnosis, not primary prevention of the original disorder. See Schizophrenia Relapse: Warning Signs, Prevention, and Care.
Recovery also involves much more than the absence of psychotic symptoms. Meaningful improvement may include autonomy, housing stability, education, relationships, and the pursuit of personally important goals. The WHO schizophrenia fact sheet emphasizes effective care and the possibility of recovery, and our article Can You Recover From Schizophrenia? addresses the longer-term outlook.
XI. What Families Can Do Without Turning Everyday Life Into Surveillance
Family members may feel pressure to detect every possible early sign. Constant symptom monitoring and repeated interrogation can increase strain, especially when the observed experiences have several possible explanations. Useful support is collaborative, respectful, and proportionate to actual distress or impairment.
Maintain ordinary relationships and privacy while making it easy to discuss worries. Respond to a person's account with curiosity about their distress rather than confrontation. Notice sustained functional changes, discuss them calmly, and offer help arranging assessment. Support sleep, meals, education, housing, and treatment of existing medical or mental health conditions. If cannabis or another substance is involved, seek evidence-based and nonjudgmental help rather than blame.
When a relative has schizophrenia, obtain reliable information and seek professional guidance if the family is experiencing distress. A first-degree relative's diagnosis affects statistical risk but does not mean children or siblings are destined to become ill. It also does not justify routine psychiatric medication or repeated diagnostic testing in people who have no concerning symptoms.
Early help should remain accessible and dignified. Young people in particular deserve space to describe their experiences privately to a trained professional. Families and clinicians can work together while respecting consent, confidentiality, culture, and the individual's goals.
XII. When Early Detection Becomes an Urgent Medical Question
Not every unusual experience is schizophrenia. A sudden change in consciousness, confusion, fever, severe headache, seizures, marked intoxication or withdrawal, or rapidly developing neurological symptoms may indicate a medical emergency. New psychosis can also occur with mood episodes, medication effects, or other serious conditions. Prompt medical assessment is important when the presentation is abrupt or accompanied by physical warning signs.
Immediate emergency help is warranted when someone is at imminent risk of suicide or serious harm, is severely confused or unable to care for essential needs, or has a medical emergency. Catatonia, which can involve immobility, unusual posturing, or severe behavioral changes, also requires urgent clinical assessment. Contact local emergency services or an emergency department in such situations. Stay with the person if it is safe, use calm language, and explain observable changes to clinicians.
For concerning experiences without immediate danger, arrange a timely appointment with a primary care clinician, psychiatrist, or early psychosis service. NICE recommends prompt referral for specialist assessment when a person has distress or declining social functioning together with attenuated psychotic symptoms or other concerning experiences, including specified family-history circumstances. See NICE CG178 referral guidance.
XIII. A Practical Risk-Reduction and Early-Help Plan
For someone without symptoms who is worried because of family history
Acknowledge family vulnerability without treating it as destiny. Avoid cannabis and nonprescribed psychoactive substances, seek ordinary preventive medical care, and address sleep, stress, anxiety, or depression when they interfere with life. Do not rely on consumer genetic tests, supplements, or routine brain scans to predict schizophrenia. If concerns become persistent or impairing, discuss them with a qualified clinician.
For someone experiencing unusual perceptions or growing distress
Record the nature, duration, and impact of experiences without making a personal diagnosis. Consider relevant sleep changes, substance or medication exposures, mood symptoms, and physical illness. Arrange a clinical assessment soon, preferably with expertise in early psychosis when available. Ask what immediate distress-reduction and functional support could be helpful while diagnostic questions remain open.
For parents, caregivers, and educators
Notice meaningful changes from a young person's usual functioning rather than checking for isolated symptoms. Approach them privately, without stigma or blame, and ask what has become difficult. Collaborate with appropriate health professionals and include the young person's preferences and developmental needs. Our guide to schizophrenia in teenagers and young adults covers this life stage.
For clinicians and services
Distinguish general risk factors from specialist-defined CHR-P, an established psychotic syndrome, and schizophrenia itself. Evaluate relevant medical, neurological, substance-related, mood, and developmental explanations; use appropriate specialist consultation; provide indicated care for current symptoms; and explain uncertainty transparently. Do not equate a screening score with a confirmed diagnosis. Early referral, shared decisions, monitoring, and access to coordinated specialty care are more clinically defensible than categorical predictions about who will develop schizophrenia.
XIV. Research Questions That Remain Open
Current research examines how genetic liability interacts with environmental exposures, when developmental factors become relevant, whether reducing particular exposures changes long-term incidence, and how to identify people who would actually benefit from preventive interventions. Future studies will need to distinguish psychotic symptoms, transition to any psychotic disorder, a later schizophrenia diagnosis, functioning, and patient-reported quality of life as separate outcomes.
Even well-designed prevention trials face challenges: schizophrenia is comparatively uncommon in the general population, risk-enriched samples do not represent everyone, preventive interventions may have side effects or burdens, and apparent changes in transition rates can reflect follow-up length or definitions. A stronger biomarker or risk algorithm will also need external validation across diverse groups before it is used to make consequential individual decisions.
One valuable direction is improving access to humane, timely, evidence-based care without requiring certainty about a future diagnosis. Preventive psychiatry can serve people experiencing distress now while remaining rigorous about what has and has not been proven.
XV. Frequently Asked Questions
Can schizophrenia be completely prevented?
No intervention has been demonstrated to completely prevent schizophrenia for an individual. Reducing relevant exposures and obtaining prompt care are reasonable actions, but schizophrenia has multiple interacting determinants. See NIMH's explanation of causes.
If schizophrenia runs in my family, will I get it?
No. Family history changes statistical risk; it does not determine an individual's outcome. Most family members of people with schizophrenia will not receive the diagnosis. A family history alone is not a diagnosis or a clinical high-risk syndrome.
Can avoiding marijuana prevent schizophrenia?
Avoiding cannabis, especially frequent or high-potency use, is a prudent risk-reduction step because observational evidence links these patterns with psychotic disorders. It cannot be promised to prevent schizophrenia in a specific individual. The magnitude of causally preventable risk remains uncertain. See the EU-GEI study.
Can childhood stress or trauma cause schizophrenia?
Adverse experiences are associated with increased risk in research, but schizophrenia cannot be traced to a single stressor or parenting event in most individuals. Protection from adversity is important for many health reasons. Assigning blame to a person or family is clinically unjustified.
Are there vitamins or supplements that prevent schizophrenia?
No specific vitamin, supplement, diet, or marketed preventive regimen has convincing evidence for preventing schizophrenia in the general population. Treat a nutritional deficiency when clinically indicated, and seek ordinary medical advice about prenatal care rather than using unvalidated prevention products.
Can a doctor predict schizophrenia before symptoms start?
Doctors can evaluate personal and family history and assess present concerns, but there is no routine clinical test that reliably predicts who will develop schizophrenia. Specialized CHR-P assessment estimates group-level risk among selected help-seeking individuals and has substantial uncertainty.
Do early warning signs mean schizophrenia is starting?
No. Sleep disruption, withdrawal, unusual perceptions, and concentration problems can have several causes. Persistent changes, distress, or declining functioning justify assessment. Urgent medical signs require prompt evaluation.
Does everyone at clinical high risk develop psychosis?
No. In a large 2021 meta-analysis, about one quarter of specialist-identified CHR-P participants transitioned to psychosis within three years; the majority had not done so at that time. Estimates vary by service and study, and the outcome was psychosis broadly rather than schizophrenia exclusively. See the JAMA Psychiatry meta-analysis.
Can CBT prevent a first psychotic episode?
Guidelines recommend CBT as a supportive intervention for some people at increased risk, but an updated 2025 meta-analysis found no robust evidence that a specific intervention reliably prevents transition to psychosis. CBT may still help distress, symptoms, and coping. See Minichino et al..
Should antipsychotics be taken as a preventive precaution?
They should not be prescribed solely to prevent psychosis in someone considered at increased risk, according to NICE guidance. Antipsychotics have different indications after appropriate clinical diagnosis. Decisions must be made with qualified prescribers and informed discussion of benefits and risks.
Is preventing schizophrenia the same as preventing relapse?
No. Preventing first onset, reducing the duration of untreated psychosis, and reducing relapse after an established diagnosis involve different populations, outcomes, and evidence. Relapse-prevention planning is an important part of ongoing schizophrenia care.
What is the single most important step if someone seems to be developing psychosis?
Arrange a timely, qualified clinical assessment and rule out urgent medical causes. Do not wait for certainty about schizophrenia before asking for help. If the person is in immediate danger or severely confused, seek emergency services.
XVI. The Evidence-Based Bottom Line
Schizophrenia cannot currently be prevented with certainty. Risk factors identify patterns across populations, not inevitable futures for individuals. Among modifiable exposures, avoiding frequent and high-potency cannabis is a particularly relevant risk-reduction choice, although its exact preventive effect against schizophrenia remains unsettled. General physical and mental health care, protection from adversity, and access to support are worthwhile on their own merits.
Early detection has a clearer clinical purpose: identify distressing or impairing symptoms, rule out medical and substance-related causes, and provide appropriate care without delay. Specialist CHR-P programs should offer help without presenting transition estimates as personal destinies. After a first psychotic episode, coordinated specialty care has an established evidence base for improving clinical and functional outcomes.
The best prevention message combines realistic risk reduction, careful assessment, shared decision-making, and practical recovery support. It leaves room for uncertainty while giving people something useful to do today.
Related Articles
References
Di Forti, M., Quattrone, D., Freeman, T. P., et al. (2019). The contribution of cannabis use to variation in the incidence of psychotic disorder across Europe (EU-GEI): A multicentre case-control study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 6(5), 427–436. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30902669/
Minichino, A., Davies, C., Karpenko, O., et al. (2025). Preventing psychosis in people at clinical high risk: An updated meta-analysis by the World Psychiatric Association Preventive Psychiatry section. Molecular Psychiatry, 30, 2773–2782. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-02902-8
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). The health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids: The current state of evidence and recommendations for research. National Academies Press. https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/24625/chapter/14
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2014, updated). Psychosis and schizophrenia in adults: Prevention and management (CG178). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg178/chapter/recommendations
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National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Understanding psychosis. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/understanding-psychosis
National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/research-funded-by-nimh/research-initiatives/recovery-after-an-initial-schizophrenia-episode-raise
Salazar de Pablo, G., Radua, J., Pereira, J., et al. (2021). Probability of transition to psychosis in individuals at clinical high risk: An updated meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 78(9), 970–978. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0830
World Health Organization. (2026). Schizophrenia. https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia