While considerable progress has been made with regards the de-stigmatisation of mental health issues in today's society, there is no doubt further needs to be done in order to address an issue which not only negatively impacts the 25% of the population living with a particular condition, but the individuals's friends, family and loved ones as well.

And while it may be fair to say there exists a more open dialogue when it comes to illnesses such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, experts in the field would argue that the stigma attached to schizophrenia has yet to dissipate in any meaningful way.

With the illness conjuring images of an individual with multiple personalities and abnormal social behaviour, medical professionals are at pains to properly explain a condition which they insist is poorly understood.
 


Commenting on the illness which affects approximately 1% of the general population, mental health advocate, Brian Semple of British charity Rethink Mental Illness told Medical News Today: "Unfortunately, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding around schizophrenia."

Echoing Mr. Semple's beliefs, Dr. Jim van Os of the Maastricht University Medical Centre in Holland has called for the re-naming of the illness in both the International Classification of Diseases and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

In an effort to readjust the public's perception of the condition, Dr. van Os has suggested that its name be replaced by the term "psychosis spectrum disorder".
 


Shedding light on the difference which exists between the public's understanding of a more common mental illness and that of schizophrenia, Dr. van Os explained: "If you have depression, then people understand this disease about feeling depressed - I feel depressed sometimes so I know where this patient is coming from."

Speaking to the Huffington Post, he continued: "But schizophrenia is a rather mystifying term that has nothing to do with psychosis itself. It doesn't help explain to the public what psychosis is about in a way that people can relate to their own experience, which is very important."

Not only would the reclassification work to change the public's perception of a patient, but recent developments have shown that it also works in favour for the recently diagnosed.
 


According to a study published in Psychological Medicine, both Japan and South Korea made the decision to re-classify the illness in a move which has ultimately worked well for patients who were subsequently better able to cope with their diagnosis while psychologists who have personally chosen to re-frame a patient's diagnosis have praised Dr. van Os' approach.

"I​n my own practice I tell people with psychotic problems the same as Jim van Os suggests in this article. It gives the patient a positive perspective and appears the best way to commit [them] to the necessary treatment," explained Dutch psychiatrist Jan P.L Leijten.

While Dr. van Os asserts that reclassification is a step in the right direction, he acknowledges that it falls short in the grand scheme of things and insists that the way in which the disease is diagnosed requires further attention, saying: "The real entity that we should be studying and diagnosing is psychosis spectrum disorder."

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