Acceptable terminology and subgroups in schizophrenia

There is general agreement that “the group of schizophrenias” comprises a very heterogeneous group of patients with diverse problems. Schizophrenia itself is a highly stigmatised term and yet has continued in use for nearly one hundred years. The development of cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis and psychosocial epidemiological research has led to increased interest in finding alternative ways of conceptualisation. This study investigated attitudes of patients, care coordinators and consultant psychiatrists to the term, schizophrenia, and to psychosocial alternatives. It found that 63% of patients expressed negative attitudes to schizophrenia compared to 19% to the alternatives. However, concordance between the terms selected by patients, psychiatrists and care coordinators with those of the researchers was low. Such terms and subgroups may be more acceptable to patients but further work is needed on establishing their reliability and validity.