From Dementia Praecox to Schizophrenia

Abstract

It’s past a century since Kraepelin described dementia praecox. This morbid entity was, ten years later, called schizophrenia by Bleuler. Actually is diagnosed according APA or WHO operational criteria. After its first descriptions, many studies investigated the causes, clinical manifestations, course and treatment. Despite the great number of theories about this issue, we think that vulnerability-stress theories are the best approach to account all that is known at the moment. They integrate biopsychosocial and coping factors and give us an intellectual support for treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation work with these patients.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v14i1.517