Reappraisal of Dementia Praecox: focus on clinical psychopathology.

One century of investigation in schizophrenia is still not enough to elucidate all the complex issues related to the essential symptomatology, clinical boundaries, aetiology, pathogenesis, outcome, treatment and prevention. Despite the extraordinary progress in the neuroscience field, no definitive data is available for schizophrenia. On the other hand, after the successful activity of the psychopharmacological era, the clinical psychopathological investigations were reduced and almost replaced by the mechanistic operational diagnosis. This has caused an impoverishment in psychiatry. Tracing some historical aspects of schizophrenia since the kraepelinian Dementia Praecox, this article intends to demonstrate the failure of the current model of diagnosis and current limitation of neuroscience. It advocates the reinforcement of Clinical Psychopathology as the foundation for correct and appropriate first steps in the investigation of schizophrenia. The splitting disease is still a challenge to biological psychiatry.