title: The role of the term schizophrenia in the decline of diagnoses of multiple personality.
abstract: The syndrome of multiple (dissociated) personality fell into disrepute around 1910. This has been attributed to loss of interest in hypnosis; psychiatrists believed the syndrome resulted from hypnosis and that they were duped. However, around 1910 an important event occurred in psychiatry: Bleuler introduced the term "schizophrenia' to replace "dementia praecox.' This factor also played a role in the decline of recognition of the multiple personality syndrome, and many of these cases were diagnosed as schizophrenia. A review of Index Medicus from 1903 through 1978 shows a dramatic decline in the number of reports of multiple personality after the diagnosis of schizophrenia "caught on,' especially in the United States. A review of clinical reports indicates that many patients with multiple personality had been diagnosed and treated as schizophrenics.
mesh_terms: D009105:Dissociative Identity Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000175:diagnosis; D008523:MEDLARS; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D013782:Textbooks as Topic; D014481:United States