Pablo López-Silva
School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile.
Abstract:
Delusions are the hallmark of psychotic disorders. For many years, they guided the diagnostic of schizophrenia after their inclusion into the first-rank set of symptoms of schizophrenia. However, the special treatment given to Schneider’s symptoms in the DSM and ICD systems has been highly questioned over the last years. They have been shown not to be exclusive to schizophrenia, and their reliability in distinguishing bizarre from non-bizarre delusions has been found poor. Schneider’s symptoms have been identified in patients with neurotic disorders, manic-depressive disorders, and mood disorders. Peralta and Cuesta concluded that Schneider’s symptoms were highly prevalent in most forms of psychotic disorders. In light of this situation, the DSM-V has eliminated the special treatment of Schneiderian symptoms, and with it, the special treatment of delusions as a key diagnostic input. Apart from the elimination of the subtypes of schizophrenia, the DSM-V proposes: ‘the elimination of the special attribution of bizarre delusions and Schneiderian first-rank auditory hallucinations (e.g., two or more voices conversing)’. This decision has two main consequences within a diagnostic context. First, it means that delusions will be treated like any other symptom in terms of diagnostic relevance. Second, it makes really obscure the exact diagnostic role of delusions within the DSM system, as it is not clear what they would be a symptom of.
Keywords:psychotic disorders ,schizophrenia ,special treatment ,clinical diagnosis