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People in this video: Whitney McKnight, cohost and producer of Mental Health Consult; Dr. Lorenzo Norris, editorial board member of Clinical Psychiatry News and cohost of Mental Health Consult, and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, assistant dean of student affairs, and the medical director of psychiatric and behavioral services at George Washington University Hospital, Washington; Dr. Lillian Beard, pediatrician with Children’s National Hospital Network, Washington, and a Pediatric News editorial board member; Dr. David Pickar, adjunct professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Dr. Pickar: Psychosis is the hallmark of serious mental illness, whether it's schizophrenia, severe bipolar, or psychosis otherwise. It is one of the great tragedies of our medical system, and I'll come back to the primary doc who's out there. I want to talk to you about this. It is a tragedy. Whitney knows, I put together a little documentary, The Realities of Serious Mental Illness. I just couldn't stand the lack of information.
They're very quick to report the violence, and I know a lot about the violence. I worry about it all the time. There's a huge debate between civil liberties and safety that's going on in serious mental illness. Regardless, knowing about it is enormously important for all docs. More patients with serious mental illness, by far, are in jails than they are in mental hospitals. There is nothing for them. You talk about collaborative care.
Whitney: On the team in the primary care setting, who's treating what?
Dr. Pickar: I'm talking now myself. A family member brings in an 18-year-old to evaluate. Okay? I'm glad to see it. Of course, I've been around a while. I spent decades as a scientist in schizophrenia. I just close my eyes and hope that I'm not seeing a first break for a seriously mental ill patient. Not that we can't treat it. Not that we can't help, but I know what's entailed. Not unlike seeing an oncology presentation. We're there. We're docs. You don't give up on it, but you know what's ahead for that family.
What's fascinating is many of the first breaks occur, not necessarily quietly, but can be a little insidious. They can be brought to the primary care. It is not uncommon. “My 16-year-old's not doing well. I can't get him up.” But really, what's going on? The primary care doc needs to have a consciousness of that. Let me just say this: First things about serious mental illness, particularly in schizophrenia, 1% of the population has it. That makes it a very common disorder.