Psychotic disorders comes with a progressive decline in IQ. If current drug treatments are successful in containing psychotic symptoms, nothing can be done to prevent the deterioration of intellectual skills that leads to loss of autonomy. Researchers have discovered that prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in late childhood can reduce the deterioration of intellectual abilities and have a neuroprotective effect on some of the brain regions affected by the psychotic illness.