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Permalink Reply by AbsentElemental on February 19, 2013 at 11:30pm

Is there a reason that has been presented as to why the name change will be taking place? If the reason is that schizophrenia is an inaccurate description of the disease, I'm all for it. In the event the reason is due to the social stigma associated with the word, I'm not positive if I'd be on board with the change (not that my opinion matters to the psychiatric community).

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer on February 20, 2013 at 11:24am

I agree with Tim. I'm curious what the reason is behind the change. And do you know why the other disorders are being removed?

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Permalink Reply by Samantha King on February 20, 2013 at 11:52am

Well, schizophrenia translates in either Greek or Roman to "splitting of the mind", so a lot of people confuse schizophrenia with people having multiple personalities or Dissosiative Identity Disorder (DID) as its properly named. I could go on about what constitutes a person to be schizophrenic or schizoaffective, but i'm short of time right now.

And for the other disorders, they are removing them I read on one site because the disorders currently listed are more like personality traits and do not qualify as full blown disorders.

And as for the name change, I don't think it's going to happen. Just an unfounded rumor going about on schizophrenic forums, but it's fun to think about.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Le Blanc on February 25, 2013 at 11:05pm

I think it would be helpful to to have a name that more accurately reflects the nature of the illness. I'd hope that that would have a knock on effect of reducing the stigma, either through giving people a better idea of what schizophrenia actually is, or, because ignorant people won't know what's happened. It seems to have worked with renaming 'manic depression' as bipolar.

It makes sense that the personality disorders are being removed. I once worked in a mental health hospital, and the psychiatrists always refused to diagnose people with them because they felt that a diagnosis could only be detrimental to the patient. Since nothing can be done to treat a personality disorder, and the patients were then stuck with a label that marked them out as incurably difficult.

I can see where they were coming from. Although I'd imagine it might be useful for some people to find out if they have one to help them understand themselves and their behaviour a bit better.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Carter on February 26, 2013 at 1:08pm

i think it will be good for the new naming so that it will no longer be attached to dissociative identity disorder. until taking my first psychology class in college, i always thought they were the same thing just because it's so commonly confused. even in tv shows, it's mistaken. it will probably be better for awareness for it to be changed.

i'm also happy about some of the personality distorders being removed. it really doesn't seem like a lot of them are needed, especially the ones that could probably fall much better under another axis.

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