Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-kc5xb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-11T17:46:01.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The disease entity in psychiatry: fact or fiction?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2012

A. Jablensky*
Affiliation:
The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor A. Jablensky, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. (Email: assen.jablensky@uwa.edu.au)

Abstract

Background.

The current debate concerning the forthcoming revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) lacks sufficient historical perspective on groundwork concepts in psychiatry, such as the nature of the disease entity, categorical typologies, dimensional models and their validity and utility.

Objective.

To offer an overview of the evolution and metamorphoses of the conceptual basis of classification in psychiatry, with particular focus on psychotic disorders.

Method.

Discursive, proceeding from history of ideas to a critique of present dilemmas.

Results.

Much of the present-day discussion of basic issues concerning the classification of mental disorders is a replay of debates that took place in the earlier periods of scientific psychiatry.

Conclusion.

The mainstream nosological paradigm adopted in psychiatry since early 20th century is in need to be critically examined and transcended with the help of concepts and methodological tools available today.

Type
Special Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreasen, NC (1995). The validation of psychiatric diagnosis: new models and approaches (editorial). American Journal of Psychiatry 152, 161162.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E (1911). Dementia praecox oder die Gruppe der Schizophrenien. In Handbuch der Psychiatrie (ed. Aschaffenburg, G), pp. 124243. Deuticke: Leipzig. (English translation: Dementia Praecox, or the Group of Schizophrenias. International Universities Press: New York, 1950).Google Scholar
Bleuler, E (1920). Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie. Dritte Auflage. Julius Springer: Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonhoeffer, K (1912). Die Psychosen im Gefolge von akuten Infektionen. In Handbuch der Psychiatrie (ed. Aschaffenburg, G), pp. 1110. Deuticke: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Cantor, N, Genaro, N (1986). Psychiatric diagnosis and natural categorization: A close analogy. In Contemporary Directions in Psychopathology (ed. Millon, T and Klerman, GL), pp. 233256. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cuthbert, BN, Insel, TR (2010). Toward new approaches to psychotic disorders: the NIMH Research Domain Criteria Project. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36, 10611062.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ey, H, Bernard, P, Brisset, C (1923). Manuel de Psychiatrie, 6th edn.Masson: Paris.Google Scholar
Feighner, JP, Robins, E, Guze, SB, Woodruff, RA, Winokur, G, Munoz, R (1972). Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry 26, 5763.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hallmayer, JF, Kalaydjieva, L, Badcock, J, Dragovic, M, Howell, S, Michie, PT, Rock, D, Vile, D, Williams, R, Corder, EH, Hollingsworth, K, Jablensky, A (2005). Genetic evidence for a distinct subtype of schizophrenia characterized by pervasive cognitive deficit. American Journal of Human Genetics 77, 468476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hempel, C (1961). Introduction to problems of taxonomy. In Field Studies in the Mental Disorders (ed. Zubin, J), pp. 332. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
Hoch, PH, Polatin, P (1949). Pseudoneurotic forms of schizophrenia. Psychiatric Quarterly 23, 248276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyman, SE (2010). The diagnosis of mental disorders: the problem of reification. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 6, 155179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jablensky, A, Kendell, RE (2002). Criteria for assessing a classification in psychiatry. In Psychiatric Diagnosis and Classification (ed. Maj, M, Gaebel, W, Lopez-Ibor, J and Sartorius, N), pp. 124. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Jablensky, A, Sartorius, N, Ernberg, G, Anker, M, Korten, A, Cooper, JE, Day, R, Bertelsen, A (1992). Schizophrenia: manifestations, incidence and course in different cultures. A World Health Organization ten-country study. Psychological Medicine, Monograph Supplement 20, 197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jablensky, A, Kirkbride, JB, Jones, PB (2011). Schizophrenia: the epidemiological horizon. In Schizophrenia, 3rd edn (ed. Weinberger, DR and Harrison, PJ), pp. 185225. Blackwell: Chichester.Google ScholarPubMed
Jaspers, K (1963). General Psychopathology (Hoenig, J and Hamilton, MW, trans.), pp. 569605. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Kahlbaum, KL (1863). Die Gruppirrung der psychiatrischen Krankheiten und die Einteilung der Seelenstörungen. Kafemann: Danzig.Google Scholar
Kasanin, K (1933). The acute schizoaffective psychoses. American Journal of Psychiatry 90, 97126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendler, KS (1980). The nosological validity of paranoia (simple delusional disorder): a review. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 699706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Gruenberg, AM, Kinney, DK (1994). Independent diagnoses of adoptees and relatives as defined by DSM-III in the provincial and national samples of the Danish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 51, 456468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R, Jablensky, A (2003). Distinguishing between the validity and utility of psychiatric diagnosis. American Journal of Psychiatry 160, 412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerlinger, FN (1973). Foundations of Behavioural Research, 2nd edn. pp. 426441. Holt, Rinehard & Winston: London.Google Scholar
Kety, S (1988). Schizophrenic illness in the families of schizophrenic adoptees: findings from the Danish national sample. Schizophrenia Bulletin 14, 217222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kielholz, P (1979). The concept of masked depression. Encephale 5 (5 Suppl.), 459462.Google ScholarPubMed
Kraepelin, E (1899). Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studirende und Aerzte, 6 Auflage. Barth: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E (1920). Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins [English translation: Patterns of mental disorder]. In Themes and Variations in European Psychiatry (ed. Hirsch, SR and Shepherd, M), pp. 730. John Wright & Sons: Bristol.Google Scholar
Langfeld, G (1937). The prognosis in schizophrenia and the factors influencing the course of the disease. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica, Supplementum 13, 1228.Google Scholar
Leonhard, K (1999). Classification of Endogenous Psychoses and their Differentiated Etiology, 2nd edn (ed. Beckmann, H). Springer: Vienna.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonhard, K, von Trostorff, S (1964). Prognostische Diagnose der endogenen Psychosen. Gustav Fischer: Jena.Google Scholar
Meehl, PE (1959). Psychodiagnosis. In Selected Papers. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MO.Google Scholar
Millon, T (1991). Classification in psychopathology: rationale, alternatives, and standards. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100, 245256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, MJ, Craddock, N, Jablensky, A (2007). The genetic deconstruction of psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 33, 905911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pope, HG, Lipinski, JF (1978). Diagnosis in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness: a reassessment of the specificity of “schizophrenic” symptoms in the light of current research. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 811828.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, E, Guze, SB (1970). Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness: its application to schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 126, 983987.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosch, E (1975). Cognitive reference points. Cognitive Psychology 7, 532547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scadding, JG (1996). Essentialism and nominalism in medicine: logic of diagnosis in disease terminology. Lancet 348, 594–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, K (1959). Clinical Psychopathology. Grune and Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
Sokal, RR (1974). Classification: purposes, principles, progress, prospects. Science 185, 11151123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strömgren, E (1987). The development of the concept of reactive psychoses. Psychopathology 20, 6267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, PF, Kendler, KS (1998). Typology of common psychiatric syndromes. An empirical study. British Journal of Psychiatry 173, 312319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Widiger, TA, Clark, LA (2000). Toward DSM-V and the classification of psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin 126, 946963.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1979). Schizophrenia: An International Follow-up Study. Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2007). Recovery from Schizophrenia. An International Perspective (ed. Hopper, K, Harrison, G, Janca, A and Sartorius, N). Oxford University Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilboorg, G (1941). Ambulatory schizophrenia. Psychiatry 4, 149155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar