Helping Patients With Mental Illness Get Back to Work.

Abstract

The onset of schizophrenia often happens during young adulthood. The illness disrupts the normal developmental goals of young adulthood, including intimacy, friendship, education, and vocation. Patients and their families need guidance on how to adapt to a future that includes having a serious psychiatric illness. One of the central questions for young patients is whether to seek (or return to) a “real” job once a diagnosis of schizophrenia is made. A landmark study by McGurk and colleagues in this issue of the Journal (1) tackles the broader question of the potential reversibilityofongoingdisabilitybytargetingkeycognitivebarriers to getting and holding a job. The study evaluated the impact of adding a focused cognitive component tocurrentstate-of-the-art employment services. In this editorial, I discuss some of the background and context within which the study was conducted, as well as importance of these results to the field at large. WhenIwasinmyresidencytrainingintheearly1980s,the