Models of disease and the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
DSM-III criteria for schizophrenia represent a significant advance in diagnostic reliability and relevance to course and treatment outcome. However, the underlying, predominantly biomedical model, if exclusively applied, encourages the making of more malignant diagnoses and in particular the over-diagnosing of schizophrenia. This occurs by virtue of an associated declining interest in the content and context of symptoms, a disavowal of "psychology" and a failure of empathy. A psychodynamic viewpoint can help to redress the diagnostic imbalance that the use of the biomedical model can engender.
Hillside Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Glen Oaks, NY 11004.
R J
RJ
Kessler
D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology