<P> A detailed case 1809 report by John Haslam concerning James Tilly Matthews , and a separate account by Philippe Pinel also published in 1809 , are often regarded as the earliest cases of schizophrenia in the medical and psychiatric literature . The Latinized term dementia praecox entered psychiatry in 1886 in a textbook by asylum physician Heinrich Schüle ( 1840 - 1916 ) of the Illenau asylum in Baden . He used the term to refer to hereditarily predisposed individuals who were `` wrecked on the cliffs of puberty '' and developed acute dementia , while others developed the chronic condition of hebephrenia . Emil Kraepelin had cited Schüle 's 1886 textbook in the 1887 second edition of his own textbook , Psychiatrie , and hence was familiar with this term at least six years before he himself adopted it . It later appeared in 1891 in a case report by Arnold Pick which argued that hebephrenia should be regarded as a form of dementia praecox . Kraepelin first used the term in 1893 . In 1899 Emil Kraepelin introduced a broad new distinction in the classification of mental disorders between dementia praecox and mood disorder ( termed manic depression and including both unipolar and bipolar depression ) . Kraepelin believed that dementia praecox was caused by a lifelong , smoldering systemic or `` whole body '' process of a metabolic nature that would eventually affect the functioning of the brain in a final decisive cascade . Hence , he believed the entire body -- all the organs , glands and peripheral nervous system -- was implicated in the natural disease process . Although he used the term `` dementia , '' Kraepelin seemed to use the term synonymously with `` mental weakness , '' mental defect , '' and `` mental deterioration , '' but distinguished it from other uses of the term dementia , such as in Alzheimer 's disease , which typically occur later in life . In 1853 Bénédict Morel used the term démence précoce ( precocious or early dementia ) to describe a group of young patients who were suffering from `` stupor '' . It is sometimes argued that this first use of the term signals the medical discovery of schizophrenia . However , Morel employed the phrase in a purely descriptive sense and he did not intend to delineate a new diagnostic category . Moreover , his traditional conception of dementia differed significantly from that employed in the latter half of the nineteenth - century . Finally , there is no evidence that Morel 's démence précoce had any influence on the later development of the dementia praecox concept by either Arnold Pick or Emil Kraepelin . </P>
<P> A detailed case 1809 report by John Haslam concerning James Tilly Matthews , and a separate account by Philippe Pinel also published in 1809 , are often regarded as the earliest cases of schizophrenia in the medical and psychiatric literature . The Latinized term dementia praecox entered psychiatry in 1886 in a textbook by asylum physician Heinrich Schüle ( 1840 - 1916 ) of the Illenau asylum in Baden . He used the term to refer to hereditarily predisposed individuals who were `` wrecked on the cliffs of puberty '' and developed acute dementia , while others developed the chronic condition of hebephrenia . Emil Kraepelin had cited Schüle 's 1886 textbook in the 1887 second edition of his own textbook , Psychiatrie , and hence was familiar with this term at least six years before he himself adopted it . It later appeared in 1891 in a case report by Arnold Pick which argued that hebephrenia should be regarded as a form of dementia praecox . Kraepelin first used the term in 1893 . In 1899 Emil Kraepelin introduced a broad new distinction in the classification of mental disorders between dementia praecox and mood disorder ( termed manic depression and including both unipolar and bipolar depression ) . Kraepelin believed that dementia praecox was caused by a lifelong , smoldering systemic or `` whole body '' process of a metabolic nature that would eventually affect the functioning of the brain in a final decisive cascade . Hence , he believed the entire body -- all the organs , glands and peripheral nervous system -- was implicated in the natural disease process . Although he used the term `` dementia , '' Kraepelin seemed to use the term synonymously with `` mental weakness , '' mental defect , '' and `` mental deterioration , '' but distinguished it from other uses of the term dementia , such as in Alzheimer 's disease , which typically occur later in life . In 1853 Bénédict Morel used the term démence précoce ( precocious or early dementia ) to describe a group of young patients who were suffering from `` stupor '' . It is sometimes argued that this first use of the term signals the medical discovery of schizophrenia . However , Morel employed the phrase in a purely descriptive sense and he did not intend to delineate a new diagnostic category . Moreover , his traditional conception of dementia differed significantly from that employed in the latter half of the nineteenth - century . Finally , there is no evidence that Morel 's démence précoce had any influence on the later development of the dementia praecox concept by either Arnold Pick or Emil Kraepelin . </P>
when was the first case of schizophrenia discovered
when was the first case of schizophrenia discovered
1809
1809