Schizophrenia: Is it time to replace the term?

The attitudes of Japanese psychiatrists toward their patients who suffer fr om schizophrenia were investigated. We were concerned specifically with whe ther the psychiatrists inform their patients of the suspected diagnosis. We discuss how the term 'schizophrenia' may influence a psychiatrist's decisi on to inform his patients of the diagnosis. A self-reported questionnaire w as distributed to 150 executive board members of the Japanese Society of Ps ychiatry and Neurology and analysis of the data obtained from 110 responden ts was carried out. The results showed that the concepts that psychiatrists use when they give a diagnosis of schizophrenia vary considerably. Fifty-n ine per cent of the respondents informed their patients of a diagnosis of s chizophrenia on a case-by-case basis, while 37% informed only the patients' families. A tree analysis showed that the most important predictors for in forming the patients of the diagnosis were assumptions about the public ima ge of schizophrenia and a negative impression of the term schizophrenia, tr anslated as 'Seishin Bunretsu Byou' in Japanese. The results revealed that the Japanese term for schizophrenia influences a psychiatrist's decision to inform patients of the diagnosis and that, by changing the term to a less stigmatized one, the disclosure of information about schizophrenia to patie nts would be promoted.