Preemptive Analgesia: Is Pain Less Costly When You Pre-Pay For It?

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

A novel treatment concept is evolving in psychopharmacology, namely, that the same treatments that can reduce symptoms in patients who already have a psychiatric disorder may also prevent symptoms in high-risk individuals who do not yet have a psychiatric disorder.¹ Thus, the mechanism whereby symptomatic suffering is relieved may also be related to the mechanism of preventing disease progression.¹ Last month we discussed how atypical antipsychotics may not only treat the symptoms of schizophrenia, but also prevent the progression of high-risk individuals to schizophrenia.²