Furious Seasons

October 09, 2006

Replacing Schizophrenia

Researchers in the UK want to ditch the term schziophrenia—they say it's scientifically invalid—and replace it with something else. They say the name is too stigmatizing. And the new term they suggest? Dopamine disregulation disorder, or the Triple-D. Which makes sense if they can prove that dopamine alone is the root cause of all those lovely delvusions, hallucinations and so on. Makes me wonder what they'll want to call bipolar disorder.

I'm not sure I buy this name switchery, but we'll see. No matter what you call it, however, schziophrenia will always carry a nasty stigma with it, so I am not sure where this act of political correctness might lead us and what it will gain anyone.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at October 9, 2006 10:40 AM

del.icio.us Digg it reddit

Comments

They should call it D-Cubed! That would be really cute! Like at Starbucks I've been getting a Marble Mocha Macciahto, and they've been calling it M-Cubed! You know, M with a little 3. I think that's compeletely adorable. And then, sometimes when I'm hanging out with this girl named Gena, she calls us G-Squared! Isn't that cute? Those UK people should definatly consider D-Cubed!

Posted by: Gwen at October 9, 2006 01:08 PM

Not wanting to label my daughter Schizophrenic, the docs have concurred to remain with this description:

"Broad spectrum." Psychosis NOS.

Whatever.No one wants to pass out that big ass label.

Political correctness never lasts. It's always changing.

The constant we have here though is mental illness. I even hate that term.

I still like the phrase "A Beautiful Mind".

We are talking about a weird stigma in my opinion.

Some of the most brilliant artists, and creatively smart people have had bipolar or schizophrenia worn as their crown so to speak.

Now, if everyone who admires greats literary or artistic works stopped to think about (say for instance, where was Starry Night painted? inside Saint-Remy )brilliant pieces of work, then they would appreciate the word schizophrenic, or bipolar, and start to equate that with:

Brilliant Minds.

Posted by: Stephany at October 10, 2006 08:08 AM