Schizophrenie? Gibt's gar nicht!

(Uni Manchester) Schizophrenia has been attributed to everything from genetic predisposition, brain chemistry, sufferers' home environment and even cat-borne viruses, but no consistent causal pattern has ever been identified. As a result, treatment outcomes for today's patients are not very different from those of patients treated 100 years ago. According to Richard Bentall, Professor in Experimental Clinical Psychology at The University of Manchester, the problem is that the psychiatric category 'schizophrenia' falsely groups people with a wide range of problems together. "Psychiatric diagnoses are based on a set of false assumptions stemming from the 19th century," says Professor Bentall, writer of the highly successful book 'Madness Explained'. "Although deep-seated, these assumptions have very little scientific value, and could actually be detrimental to patients and their treatment options.