Within the efforts to revise the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), the Work Group on the Classification of Psychotic Disorders appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed several changes, which will be put to test in international field trials in spring 2014.

The objectives of the field trials are to test whether the proposed revisions lead to an increase of clinical utility, reliability and validity of the classification of psychotic disorders.

WHO field trials target the following questions: (a) do clinicians apply the ICD-11 psychotic disorder diagnostic guidelines and discriminate among the descriptions consistently, (b) do the ICD-11 symptom specifiers lead to an incremental improvement over ICD-10 subtypes concerning reliability and clinical description, and (c) which is the optimal scale for the ICD-11 symptom severity specifiers. In further field trials, the effects of training on reliability in the use of symptom severity scales will be examined.

Report of current developments.

Schizophrenia subtypes will be replaced by six symptom specifiers, including a specifier for cognitive impairment. First-rank symptoms schizophrenia will be de-emphasized, course specifiers have been reformulated. ICD-11 includes stricter criteria for schizoaffective disorder and major restructuring of ATPD and delusional disorders.

Moderate to pronounced changes will be made to chapters on psychotic disorders. Proposed changes are likely to have impact on treatment planning, prognostic decision making, research, which will be tested in the ICD-11 field trials.

Abstract topic: 31 Schizophrenia