Letters
“Schizophrenia” does not exist
“Schizophrenia” is a useful concept
BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1046 (Published 23 February 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i1046
- Stephen M Lawrie, head of psychiatry
- University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF, UK
- s.lawrie{at}ed.ac.uk
To state that schizophrenia does not exist is a trite assertion with no more meaning than saying, for example, that migraine does not exist.1 It would be equally meaningless to suggest that any abstract noun or concept does or does not exist. The key question is whether it is a useful …
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