Overdiagnosis of schizophrenia as a cognitive distortion of the process of knowledge of clinical reality

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the causes of overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of schizophrenia from the standpoint of cognitive distortions in the process of cognition of clinical reality. Using the diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia” as an example, it is concluded that overdiagnosis is based on the false consensus effect, which in psychiatry reflects the diagnostician’s solidarity with the position of the scientific school to which he belongs, and with the inability to resist the pressure of authorities. A clinical example of an erroneous diagnosis is given. In conclusion, it is stated that the overdiagnosis of schizophrenia and the unjustified prescription of antipsychotic therapy to patients leads to the discrediting of psychiatry and the stigmatization of the mentally ill. This trend should be reconsidered and the diagnosis of schizophrenia should be made solely on the basis of obvious, and not indirect, clinical phenomena.

Keywords

schizophrenia / overdiagnosis / misdiagnosis / sluggish schizophrenia / Snezhnevsky

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