Avaliação das condicionantes biofísicas na expansão urbana da cidade de Castelo Branco

Arguably the greatest victories in modern medicine have come in the arena of prevention. The most spectacular successes have been in vaccination, but even in the non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, this has been true. In cardiovascular disease, the greatest contribution to survival rates has been through smoking cessation programs and blood pressure and lipid monitoring and control, rather than through better treat-ment of myocardial infarction. Equally, in cancer, survival from metastatic disease remains poor; the advances have been in preventive strategies, early detection and interven-tion at the earliest stages when prognosis is better. In the mental health arena, we have an increased understand-ing of the operative risk factors in many psychiatric dis-orders, including schizophrenia. However, a larger and more diverse array of risk factors operates in psychiatric illnesses, and the individual contribution of these risk fac-tors to disorders is smaller. The question then becomes, is the prevention of schizophrenia a realistic goal?There is a growing interest in the possibilities for prevent-ing mental disorders, partly driven by the strengthening evidence base for preventive interventions (eg, Beardslee et al