FromĀ The Conversation: Many researchers are beginning to acknowledge that theĀ concept of “schizophrenia” as a discrete, hopeless, and deteriorating brain disease does not exist. In reality, there are many different causes, experiences, and trajectories of psychosis.
“Arguments that schizophrenia is a distinct disease have been ‘fatally undermined’. Just as we now have the concept of autism spectrum disorder, psychosis (typically characterised by distressing hallucinations, delusions, and confused thoughts) is also argued to exist along a continuum and in degrees. Schizophrenia isĀ the severe end of a spectrum or continuum of experiences.
Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht University, has argued that we cannot shift to this new way of thinking without changing our language. As such, he proposes the term schizophrenia ‘should be abolished’. In its place, he suggests the concept of a psychosis spectrum disorder.
Another problem is that schizophrenia is portrayed as a ‘hopeless chronic brain disease’. As a result, someĀ people given this diagnosis, and someĀ parents, have been told cancer would have been preferable, as it would be easier to cure. Yet this view of schizophrenia is only possible by excluding people who do have positive outcomes. For example, some who recoverĀ are effectively toldĀ that ‘it mustnāt have been schizophrenia after all’.”
