Psychosis: men untreated for longer
It takes 50% longer for men with symptoms of psychosis to get help than women, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
In general it takes four and a half weeks for men to get a prescription after the onset of visible psychosis symptoms compared to three weeks for women.
There are also variations in treatment time according to ethnicity. On average, the wait for the black or black British ethnic group was longer than for other ethnic groups. For this group the median wait was five and a half weeks, compared to three and a half for the white ethnic group and four weeks for the Asian ethnic group.
Kingsley Manning, Chair of the Health and Social Care Information Centre said: ‘There are wide variations in the time it takes for people with psychosis to receive treatment and should lead to questions for the health service about why these differences occur; whether some groups take longer to initially seek treatment for their symptoms or due to other factors.’