Several programs for destigmatizing brought favourable results in the past years.
The term schizophrenia has been stigmatizing since its appearance in 1911. Several programs for destigmatizing brought favourable results in the past years. However, in Japan, schizophrenia was renamed to integration disorder. Today’s debate on salience syndrome replacing schizophrenia implies a disorder of stimulus-reaction-control. Increased dopamine is the supposed neurobiological correlate, being mediator between stimulus and affective reaction. The reduction of the disease entity schizophrenia to a syndromal level might lead to a neglect of accessory symptoms, which could be essential for course and outcome of the illness. A mere syndromal description with a new art term does not fulfil the aim of destigmatization but will blur doctor’s view and impair patient’s acceptance. The new term might even be stigmatized if the old schizophrenia term is used for explaining the new syndrome.