The term schizophrenia should be dropped because it is not scientifically valid and is stigmatizing, says Richard Bentall, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Manchester , renewing a debate on the best ways to fight the shame associated with the disease.

Bentall criticized the term because it groups together a whole range of different problems under one label. “The assumption is that all of these people with all of these different problems have the same brain disease.”

People with schizophrenia should be diagnosed and treated based on their individual psychological symptoms, rather than psychiatric categories of symptoms that may not apply, said Bentall.

Bentall’s perspective runs contrary to mainstream psychiatry, said Dr. Robert Zipursky, a psychiatrist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Using individual psychological symptoms to diagnose the affliction is like using symptoms of fever and cough to diagnose pneumonia, Zipursky said. Many psychiatric illnesses may cause symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions but are not necessarily schizophrenia, and psychiatrists are skilled at making the determination.

Japan dropped the category schizophrenia in favor of “integrated disorder” in 2004. The terms dopamine dysregulation disorder, thought disorder and psychosis are other suggested replacements.

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Jonas Mosskin» Blog Archive » Så är det att leva med schizofreni (2/27/2007)

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