Schizophrenia in a Primary Care Setting

In recent years, the focus of mental health care for people with schizophrenia has shifted from an expectation of lifelong disability to a ‘recovery’ approach in which patients and specialists anticipate discharge to management within primary care. Although the active symptoms of mental illness are generally well-managed with modern pharmacotherapy, primary care physicians often express concern about their lack of understanding and expertise in general management of schizophrenia. Moreover, the ability of patients to access care for their physical disorders in a timely fashion together with a higher prevalence of physical co-morbidities is likely to be responsible for the greater mortality and premature death of this already stigmatised and disadvantaged group. This paper focuses on new evidence over the past 5 years, considering the management of physical and mental health of schizophrenia patients in primary care, optimal processes and the reasons why these may not always be realised in practice.