The term "schizophrenia" should be abolished

[WyoBadger]

"If you've ever mowed your lawn and found a car..."
--Jeff Foxworthy

[Wombat]

I'm glad that people feel called to defend themselves and their positions, because it makes them that much more understandable.

I don't think there was anything hard to understand at the outset. A very strange proposal about schizophrenia was raised and it was suggested that perhaps the term mightn't be needed any more. Anybody who has seen the symptoms up close would regard that as very strange. I still do.

Three or four pages in, perhaps the reason the joking got started had been lost sight of. Then it's time to stop.

[djm]

I disagree. I do not feel any need to justify myself. I laugh at others' misery and scoff at the doom-and-gloom sayers. I'm the meanest SOB in the valley. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

djm

[missy]

Wyobadger..........

You know how Jeff says if your family tree doesn't have any branches, you might be a red neck?

Well, my ex's is a wreath...........


Also - the ex paints all of his tools and garden impliments blaze orange. That's so he can find them out in the yard before he mows the grass......


The ex goes out the kid's bedroom window onto the back porch roof, and uses a compound bow to shoot deer decoys in the back yard. He has a quiver hanging on a rope so the kids can go and get the arrows, then he pulls them back up.............

I could go on and on........

[Lambchop]

I disagree. I do not feel any need to justify myself. I laugh at others' misery and scoff at the doom-and-gloom sayers. I'm the meanest SOB in the valley. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

djm

Oh, don't listen to him! <tsk tsk!> He's still upset over missing ITLAPD. I bet I know something that will cheer him up.

Psst! Deej! Wanna make pasta with me?

[scottielvr]

You know how Jeff says if your family tree doesn't have any branches, you might be a red neck?

Well, my ex's is a wreath...........

One of my coworkers had an ex like that. She's got a lot of stories too. Like how he hung his mailbox up in a tree and labeled it "Air Mail." Or when her car broke down and he kindly offered to lend her his truck. When he brought it over, there was no front seat in it. When she pointed this out, he apologized; he had loaned it to his cousin, who needed it for a couch.

[djm]

Wanna make pasta with me?

djm

[Lorenzo]

Looks like experts from all over are joining in.

• The Australian
  New name needed for schizophrenia
  Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
  October 11, 2006
  THE term schizophrenia should be abolished as it has become incorrectly assigned to a range of disorders and has stigmatising connotations within society.
  
  At a scientific meeting in London, psychiatrists and psychologists also suggested that symptoms such as hearing voices and hallucinations were not necessarily the results of the illness but may be triggered by emotional trauma.
  
  In Japan, the term has not been used since 2004, when "integrated disorder" became the accepted term for the range of disorders commonly called schizophrenia.
  
  "The concept of schizophrenia is scientifically meaningless," said Richard Bentall of the school of psychological sciences at Manchester University. "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."
  
  He said delusions and paranoia could be triggered by trauma rather than illness and warned that a schizophrenia diagnosis could end a person's career and label them as violent.
  
  Vaughan Carr, scientific director of the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders in Sydney, said many people diagnosed with schizophrenia were not receiving adequate treatment. "A lot of people ... would be getting medication only," Professor Carr said. "That's unconscionable because we know that treatments and rehabilitation are highly effective in preventing relapse and improving function."
  
  He said therapy was particularly important as many people with mental health problems stopped taking their medication.
  
  "The medications are effective but they have some nasty side-effects," he said. "Research in the US recently found that in an 18-month period, 75 per cent of patients came off their medications and most of those would have relapsed."
  
  NSW Institute of Psychiatry director Louise Newman said schizophrenia could be hard to diagnose, especially in teenagers.
  
  "Adolescents can present with a whole range of symptoms that might be schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or they could be drug-related," she said.
  
  Doctors cannot agree on a replacement term. But in any case, Professor Carr said changing the name might not reduce the stigma of mental illness.

• Abolish label 'schizophrenia,' psychologist says
  Last Updated: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 | 2:58 PM ET
  CBCNews
  The Campaign for the Abolition of the Schizophrenia Label, or CASL, also argues the term schizophrenia is associated with unpredictability, danger, inability to cope and the need for long-term treatment, said Paul Hammersley of the University of Manchester, who launched the campaign. (see link above for full article)

• Schizophrenia needs re-naming: experts
  Tuesday Oct 10 11:30 AEST
  NineMSN
  Mental health experts have called for the term schizophrenia to be dropped, saying it has no scientific validity, is imprecise and stigmatising.
  
  "It is a harmful concept," said Professor Marius Romme, a visiting professor of social psychiatry at the University of Central England in Birmingham. (see link above for full article)

• CNN
  'Schizophrenia' should be dropped, experts say
  POSTED: 3:54 p.m. EDT, October 9, 2006
  LONDON, England (Reuters)-- -- British mental health experts on Monday called for the term schizophrenia to be dropped, saying it has no scientific validity, is imprecise and stigmatizing. (see link for full article)

[Dale]

Well, back to the original idea, as we've now mercifully been re-directed. I like the idea of letting the old term go. It is the source of ongoing confusion and it is stigmatizing.

[Joseph E. Smith]

I like the idea of letting the old term go. It is the source of ongoing confusion and it is stigmatizing.

Agreed.

BTW, your new avatar Dale, it's brilliant!

[Lambchop]

Looks like experts from all over are joining in.

• The Australian
  New name needed for schizophrenia
  Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
  October 11, 2006
  THE term schizophrenia should be abolished as it has become incorrectly assigned to a range of disorders and has stigmatising connotations within society.
  
  At a scientific meeting in London, psychiatrists and psychologists also suggested that symptoms such as hearing voices and hallucinations were not necessarily the results of the illness but may be triggered by emotional trauma.
  
  In Japan, the term has not been used since 2004, when "integrated disorder" became the accepted term for the range of disorders commonly called schizophrenia.
  
  "The concept of schizophrenia is scientifically meaningless," said Richard Bentall of the school of psychological sciences at Manchester University. "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."
  
  He said delusions and paranoia could be triggered by trauma rather than illness and warned that a schizophrenia diagnosis could end a person's career and label them as violent.
  
  Vaughan Carr, scientific director of the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders in Sydney, said many people diagnosed with schizophrenia were not receiving adequate treatment. "A lot of people ... would be getting medication only," Professor Carr said. "That's unconscionable because we know that treatments and rehabilitation are highly effective in preventing relapse and improving function."
  
  He said therapy was particularly important as many people with mental health problems stopped taking their medication.
  
  "The medications are effective but they have some nasty side-effects," he said. "Research in the US recently found that in an 18-month period, 75 per cent of patients came off their medications and most of those would have relapsed."
  
  NSW Institute of Psychiatry director Louise Newman said schizophrenia could be hard to diagnose, especially in teenagers.
  
  "Adolescents can present with a whole range of symptoms that might be schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or they could be drug-related," she said.
  
  Doctors cannot agree on a replacement term. But in any case, Professor Carr said changing the name might not reduce the stigma of mental illness.

• Abolish label 'schizophrenia,' psychologist says
  Last Updated: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 | 2:58 PM ET
  CBCNews
  The Campaign for the Abolition of the Schizophrenia Label, or CASL, also argues the term schizophrenia is associated with unpredictability, danger, inability to cope and the need for long-term treatment, said Paul Hammersley of the University of Manchester, who launched the campaign. (see link above for full article)

• Schizophrenia needs re-naming: experts
  Tuesday Oct 10 11:30 AEST
  NineMSN
  Mental health experts have called for the term schizophrenia to be dropped, saying it has no scientific validity, is imprecise and stigmatising.
  
  "It is a harmful concept," said Professor Marius Romme, a visiting professor of social psychiatry at the University of Central England in Birmingham. (see link above for full article)

• CNN
  'Schizophrenia' should be dropped, experts say
  POSTED: 3:54 p.m. EDT, October 9, 2006
  LONDON, England (Reuters)-- -- British mental health experts on Monday called for the term schizophrenia to be dropped, saying it has no scientific validity, is imprecise and stigmatizing. (see link for full article)

These news sources mostly seem to be quoting the same expert.

[I.D.10-t]

I like the idea of letting the old term go. It is the source of ongoing confusion and it is stigmatizing.

Do enough people actually know enough about Schizophrenia to make it a harmful? Perhaps the word needs re defining, and perhaps it is outside of what could be reclaimed, but it is not like G.R.I.D. needing to be renamed due to it's name itself being inaccurate. But then I didn't understand the need for changing STDs to STIs either and I am a bit resistant to change.

Without education, what ever new term is used will suffer the same fate and gain the name “bla bla bla... ...its the new term for Schizophrenia".

[djm]

Is anyone here knowledgable and qualified enough about schizophrenia to take part in the argument?

djm

[SteveK]

Well, I'm of two minds on this ....

djm

Doggone you. I was just going to say that and then I thought I should look and see if anyone already did.

[JessieK]

Well, I'm of two minds on this ....

djm

Doggone you. I was just going to say that and then I thought I should look and see if anyone already did.

That, right there, is part of the misunderstanding that occurs with the term. Many laypeople don't know that Schizophrenia is not the same thing as Multiple Personality Disorder.