History

   Descriptions of symptoms occur as early as 2000 BC in the "Book of hearts" - part of an ancient Egyptian papyrus Ebersa. The study of ancient Greek and Roman sources said that, perhaps, in the societies of that time were aware of psychotic disorders, but did not meet specifications, which would meet the current criteria for schizophrenia. At the same time, the symptoms resembling schizophrenia, marked by the Arab medical and psychological texts, dating from middle ages. For example, the Canon of Medicine describes the state of Avicenna, partly reminiscent of schizophrenia and separated from other forms of madness, such as mania, rabies, and manic-depressive psychosis.

   While the general concept of madness existed for millennia, only in 1893, schizophrenia was identified as a distinct mental disorder Emil Krepelinym. He first held the brink, defined psychotic disorder that he then called dementia prekoks, and manic depression. Krepelin thought that dementia is primarily a disease of the brain, as a form of dementia that is different from other forms, such as Alzheimer's disease, occur more commonly in old age.

   The term "schizophrenia", which translates roughly as the "division of reason" and comes from the Greek roots and FRESNES - has been proposed Eygene Bleylerom in 1908 to demonstrate the separation of functions between personality, thinking, memory and perception. Bleyler's description of the main symptoms include four "A": a violation of association, affective flattening, autism and ambivalence. Bleyler realized that the disease is not dementia, when one of his patients went to the amendment, instead of the expected degradation, and this prompted the psychiatrist to offer a new the name of the disease.

   Usually, the term "schizophrenia" erroneously interpreted as an indication of the "split personality" the patient. Although some people with this diagnosis may hear voices, while perceiving them as individuals with schizophrenia does not change the personalities of the individual. The confusion partly resulted from the literal meaning of the word created Bleyler. The first known use of the term erroneously stated in the article the poet TS Eliot, published in 1933.

   In the first half of XX century, schizophrenia was considered to be hereditary defect, and in many countries, patients have become an object of manipulation, proponents of eugenics. Hundreds of thousands of people, both on his own accord, and without it, were sterilized - especially in Nazi Germany, the United States and Scandinavian countries. Among those with the hallmark of "mental unfitness" Many people fell victim to schizophrenia Nazi Program Action T4.

   Diagnostic descriptions of schizophrenia with the times changing. Following the 1971 US-UK diagnostic study, it became clear that the United States diagnosed with schizophrenia is much more common than in Europe. This is partly due to the less formal criteria for diagnosis in the United States, which then used DSM-II, in opposed to Europe, where the ICD-9. The discovery of a number of other factors led to a revision not only a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but also the entire directory of DSM, with the subsequent publication of the next version, DSM-III.