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To: bdeaner
Dementia praecox, an early name for schizophrenia
79 posted on 01/30/2009 5:28:51 PM PST by gusopol3
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To: gusopol3
Dementia praecox, an early name for schizophrenia

In a certain sense, this statement is true IF the statement simply means that something like schizophrenia, before there was a word for schizophrenia, was identified as dementia praecox.

But the statement, in the context in which you originally used it, was factually inaccurate IF it was to make the point that schizophrenia has a biological etiology, or that schizophrenia is exactly the same diagnostic category as dementia praecox.

You originally made this statement, as I recall, to refute my claim that the category of schizophrenia is an overly heterogenous diagnostic category. In that context, the statement fails to refute my claim. So, I will simply reassert the claim, standing on firm empirical grounds: schizophrenia is such a large category of such a wide variety of symptom formations, -- and considering the fact that schizophrenia is a diagnostic category based purely on description of symptoms and not underlying etiology, which remains unknown -- that it makes it nearly impossible to predict how treatments will effect individuals diagnosed with this disorder. Much reform is needed before psychiatry can make significant progress in this area.
82 posted on 01/30/2009 5:43:00 PM PST by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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