Society and Psychosis: Society and psychosis: future directions and implications

This concluding chapter provides an overview and summary of the research presented in the book Society and Psychosis, to suggest directions and challenges for future research and to discuss the implications of this research. In attempting to understand the links between society and psychosis, there is a need to develop conceptual tools that allow the complexities of the social world to be studied. The framework for investigating the impact of society on psychosis provides a means of synthesising information and knowledge, and generating testable hypotheses for future research. The tentative models outlined in the book indicate genuinely integrated theories of psychosis aetiology, in which the epidemiological evidence that psychosis is associated with forms of social adversity is linked through known biological and psychological mechanisms to the development of symptoms. Irrespective of whether social factors are causally related to psychosis, many of those who present to services have significant social needs.