Eleanor Longden started hearing voices when she was 18. She was medicated and hospitalized, then told she was "schizophrenic." The latter term is scientifically imprecise (lacking specific and sensitive enough biomarkers to make the diagnosis, has multiple courses and outcomes, multiple etiologies, etc.). The kappa reliability coefficients (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen%27s_kappa for "schizophrenia" was .46 in the DSM-5 field trials (https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12091189 There are also ethical considerations in retaining an outdated term which seems baked in the minds of many people to signify dangerousness and non-recoverability, neither of which are true based on epidemiological research, including the WHO studies demonstrating better recoveries in developing countries than developed countries. For these and other reasons, this antiquated term should be dropped and carefully replaced. The WHO and APA should make sure to survey many people given this diagnosis, in their deliberations about whether to drop and replace this term.
Brian Koehler, PhD, MS
New York University