Last and most important, it is essential to develop community-based and clinical strategies for detecting risks and early signs and providing early treatment for people with schizophrenia. Population- or community-based assessments of risk factors and symptoms are critical for precisely and accurately detecting at-risk groups and directing them to the most appropriate preventive programs and strategies available in community mental health care services. Early detection and targeted interventions of the illness can reduce its vulnerability progression to the development of more severe behavioral
and cognitive problems, as suggested by Birchwood et al in their critical period hypothesis.1