Testing a hypothesis arising from the epidemiology of schizophrenia in New Zealand

A 2011 publication in World Psychiatry thoughtfully, but somewhat pessimistically, addressed the question of how schizophrenia might be prevented.1 A review of causal evidence2 a decade later offers little further hope. We hypothesise that an emergent increase in syndromal schizophrenia in New Zealand, particularly in Maori (descendants of the indigenous Polynesian population), may present opportunities for prevention. The concept and...