Posted by SLS on October 10, 2006, at 23:07:09
In reply to Re: experts say...ditch schizophrenia label, posted by xbunny on October 10, 2006, at 20:00:49
> I disagree, I think the time isnt right yet, until more is understood about the different illnesses they hope to disambiguate from the umbrella term of schizophrenia then inventing new names for schizophrenia achieves nothing. They would be swapping one term for something they cant really pin down for multiple names which are equally difficult to pin down. I think this would actually be more damaging as then specific treatment plans for each new illness would be invented and sufferers would be fitted as best as possible into thier new supposably more accurate illness definition with even less regard to individual symptoms than before. By being deliberately vague the psychiatrist is forced to treat what he sees rather than not think and just follow some flowchart. Maybe in the future we will know enough about schizophrenia illnesses to be able to make an effective guide for the diagnosis and treatment of patients but nothing I have seen suggests we are in anyway close to that and until then I feel it should remain a very personalized approach. As for the arguement that the very name schizophrenia results in stigmatization and that changing it to something else will lessen this sounds even more ridiculous to me. The result will be that the new name(s) become stigmatizing. Changing the name wont lessen ignorance about schizophrenia and those who suffer from it however education might.
> I read that one of the previously proposed new names for schizophrenia was dopamine deficiency syndrome. Im sure we all can see how ludicrous that suggestion is but I think it gives us a good insight into the mindset of our leading psychiatrists and their rigid adherence to biobabble.Very well said.
I think we are looking at several separate illnesses here within the diagnostic catergories comprising schizophrenia. I believe these are discrete diagnosable entities; the individual cases within which have similar characteristics and respond similarly to similar treatments. Continued research will ultimately resolve the details and produce biological and psychometric tests to segregate out the various illnesses that might be currently portrayed by the single diagnosis of schizophrenia. Although to the credit of the establishment, the identification of the various subtypes makes for a recognition of different illnesses.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:693568
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061003/msgs/693733.html