Revisiting the diagnosis of schizophrenia: where have we been and where are we going?

Appropriate and reliable classification of mental illness is crucial for advancing the field of psychiatry as agreement on diagnosis has broad implications for treatment of mental disorders and research into the etiopathophysiology of mental disorders. Since schizophrenia was first recognized by Kraepelin (as dementia praecox), there has been much discussion about what does and does not diagnostically constitute the disorder. The importance placed upon different symptoms and course types associated with schizophrenia has been as heterogeneous as the disorder itself. This article focuses upon the classification of schizophrenia over the last 100 years, the current diagnosis of schizophrenia, changes for schizophrenia planned in the upcoming DSM 5, future directions for improving the diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the implications of a new diagnostic paradigm for the illness.