Psychosis and Schizophrenia in Hong Kong

This book covers some of the most serious mental health conditions that top the global disease burden and affect 3% of the general population. However, most research on psychotic disorders is undertaken in the West, and few studies have been systematically carried out in Asia despite global interest in regional differences. This work offers a unique and coherent account of these disorders and their treatment in Hong Kong over the last thirty years.

Chen and his research programme’s pioneering work has ranged from the impact of early intervention on outcomes and relapse prevention, to the renaming of psychosis to reduce stigma. The studies have contributed to wider international debates on the optimal management of the condition. Their investigations in semantics and cognition, as well as cognition-enhancing exercise interventions, have provided novel insights into deficits encountered in psychotic disorders and how they might be ameliorated. The research has also explored subjective experiences of psychosis and elicited unique perspectives in patients of Asian origin.

Each topic is divided into three sections: a global background of the challenges encountered; research findings from Hong Kong; and reflections that place the data in scientific and clinical contexts and offer future directions

Eric Yu Hai Chen, MD (Edin), FRCPsych (UK), MB ChB (Edin), MA (Oxon), is professor of Psychiatry at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, and senior consultant at the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.

Yvonne Treffurth, MD (Freiburg, Germany), MA (Warw), MRCPsych (UK), State Exam (Göttingen), is a child and adolescent psychiatrist affiliated with the University of Hong Kong.

‘This book contains important research into specific problems facing persons with psychosis and schizophrenia in Hong Kong, arising from environment factors, stigma, and treatment shortfalls. Its insights would help “overcome barriers to facilitate mental health work”, which is how Professor Eric Chen describes the work of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, and what he has admirably devoted himself to do over the years.’

—Wong Yan-Lung SC, chairman, Advisory Committee on Mental Health, Hong Kong, 2017–2023

‘This learned and comprehensive opus about schizophrenia, its causes, course, and outcomes reaches far beyond its regional scope and presents the best of the world’s current knowledge about schizophrenia as well as the significant contribution to it made by the authors working in Hong Kong.’

—Norman Sartorius, MD, PhD, FRCPsych, president, Association of the Improvement of Mental Health Programs, Geneva