Robert S. Laitman, MD, on Reclassifying Schizophrenia

Robert S. Laitman, MD, discusses evidence supporting the reclassification of schizophrenia as a neurological disorder, his views on how reclassification could impact prognosis and recovery, and treatment interventions he says have led to meaningful recovery in his patients with schizophrenia.

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Robert S. Laitman, MD, is an internal medicine physician at Bronx Westchester Medical Group in New York. He is on the Board of Directors for the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America, and is also a board member of the National Alliance of Mental Illness - New York. Over the last 10 years, he has developed a practice taking care of people with psychotic disorders after his son, Daniel, received a diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2006.

References and Additional Reading:

1. Amador X. I Am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help! How to Help Someone with Mental Illness Accept Treatment. 10th anniversary ed. Peconic, NY: Vida Press. 2011.
2. Amminger GP, Schäfer MR, Schlögelhofer M, Klier CM, McGorry PD. Longer-term outcome in the prevention of psychotic disorders by the Vienna omega-3 study. Nat Commun. 2015;6:7934. doi:10.1038/ncomms8934.
3. Freedman R, Ross RG. Prenatal choline and the development of schizophrenia. Shanghai Arch Psychiatry. 2015;27(2):90-102. doi:10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.215006.
4. Fuller Torrey E. Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual. 7th ed. New York, NY: Harper Perennial. 2019.
5. Gardner KN, Nasrallah HA. Managing first-episode psychosis: an early stage of schizophrenia with distinct treatment needs: minimize duration of untreated psychosis; aim for remission. Current Psychiatry. 2015;14(5).
6. Kalmady SV, Agrawal R, Venugopal D, et al. CHRFAM7A gene expression in schizophrenia: clinical correlates and the effect of antipsychotic treatment. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2018;125(4):741-748. doi: 0.1007/s00702-017-1833-5.
7. Meyer JM, Stahl SM. The Clozapine Handbook. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2019.
8. Opler LA, Laitman RS, Mandel Laitman A, Laitman D. Meaningful Recovery from Schizophrenia and Serious Mental Illness with Clozapine. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2017.