Availability of new psychiatric medications, especially antipsychotics, in context of patient rights and destigmatization of psychiatric patients.

Today it is almost unnecessary to insist further on the recognition of importance of mental disorders in terms of the enormous influence they have on every-day quality of life of patients and their families, but also in terms of the significant socioeconomic burden those disorders represent for the community as a whole. It is always easy to use sheer magnitude of a certain health problem and disability that comes as a result of it as justification for urgency and methodical approach in coming up with efficient treatment strategies. When looking just at functional burden, it is important to notice that it was reported by more persons suffering from mental disorders (42%) than by those with chronic medical disorders (24%) (Druss et al. 2009). The overall burden of mental disorders, in this case primarily depression, has started rivaling that of the cardiovascular diseases. Depression ranked third among leading causes of disease burden in 2001 according to Global Burden of Disease Study, with tendency of taking the first place in middleand high-income countries (Lepine & Briley 2011). Nevertheless, another condition has been perceived by general public to be the face of psychiatry and mental disorders, even if we were to take into account those views that challenge the very concept of mental disorders. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders, because of the abnormal behavior patterns that are often present, have for long time in public perception given the meaning to words like "madness" and "craziness". When compared to that of depression the prevalence of schizophrenia might seem insignificant with lifetime prevalence estimated to be between 0.34% and 1% and annual incidence rate of 10-20 per 100,000 (Goldner et al. 2002). The disorder still carries disproportionate burden to patients and their families, affecting their functioning on many levels. Due to stigmatization brought on by the complex of symptoms patients are often isolated from the community but also from their families. The impact of schizophrenia is no less important for the society as a whole. People with schizophrenia have reduced life expectancy when compared to general population, quality of life of patients and their families is reduced, and the disease is linked to higher unemployment and reduced work productivity, which leads to direct and indirect costs (Rice 1999, Wu et al. 2002, Mangalore & Knapp 2007). Being an immensely burdensome disease, schizophrenia has been compared to chronic medical illnesses and its treatment should therefore be approached with no less seriousness and care. Still, even with the established clear burden of mental disorders, we might ask ourselves if and why health systems are sometimes more reluctant in providing quick access to new psychopharmacs than they are in providing new medications for non-psychiatric conditions.