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Centenary of schizophrenia: Should the term survive “togo shicchou sho” and “salience syndrome”?
Author(s) -
Palm Ulrich
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/j.1758-5872.2012.00220.x
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , psychology , psychiatry , disease , stimulus (psychology) , perception , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , clinical psychology , medicine , psychotherapist , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , pathology
The term “schizophrenia” has been associated with stigma since its appearance in 1911. Several destigmatization programs in occidental countries have had favorable results. In J apan, schizophrenia has been renamed as a kind of integration disorder. A debate is ongoing about whether to replace the term schizophrenia with “salience syndrome”, a term that implies a disorder of stimulus–reaction control. Increased dopamine, a mediator between a stimulus and the affective reaction, is the supposed neurobiological correlate. Reducing the disease entity schizophrenia to a syndromal level might mean that accessory symptoms, which could be important for predicting the course and outcome of the illness, are neglected. A mere syndromal description with a new term will not improve destigmatization. It will, however, blur physicians' perception and impair patients' acceptance of the disorder. Furthermore, ethnic and cultural aspects are not reflected by nosological changes.