Some psychiatric diagnoses are stigmatizing. In August of 2002, the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology decided to change the name of schizophrenia in Japanese from seishinbunretsu-byo (‘split mind disease’) to togoshitcho-sho (‘loss of coordination disorder’). The objective of the present study was to investigate whether there was the same movement internationally or not, and how the experts in different countries thought about the term ‘schizophrenia’.

To attempt to gain insight into the thinking concerning this point among international psychiatric authorities, we conducted a survey in 2010. This questionnaire was sent to members of the Section on Schizophrenia of the World Psychiatric Association, the European Psychiatric Association and schizophrenia experts of the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations via email. The mean years of the respondents' experiences as psychiatrists was 18.6 years (SD; 10.1).

65% of respondents said that the term “schizophrenia” was not an appropriate term, and 89% replied that it denoted stigma. In addition, 67% replied that “schizophrenia” should be renamed to another term and 59% replied that the new name should convey acceptable scientific concept about the disorder.

The results of this survey were obtained from only 46 experts, although they were from throughout the world. However, we believe that now is the time to think whether the term “schizophrenia” should be changed or not, considering that the release dates of the ICD-11 and DSM-5 are approaching.