Bentall R P, Jackson H F, Pilgrim D
Department of Psychiatry, New Medical School, Liverpool, UK.
Br J Clin Psychol. 1988 Nov;27(4):303-24. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1988.tb00795.x.
After more than 90 years of research in which the presence or absence of a diagnosis of schizophrenia has been used as an independent variable, little of certainty has been found out about the aetiology of the hypothesized schizophrenia disease process. One possible reason for this lack of progress is that schizophrenia is not a valid object of scientific inquiry. Data from published research (mainly carried out by distinguished psychiatrists) are reviewed casting doubt on: (i) the reliability, (ii) the construct validity, (iii) the predictive validity, and (iv) the aetiological specificity of the schizophrenia diagnosis. It is argued that continued research into the aetiology of schizophrenia is likely to prove fruitless and that psychologists should adopt alternative methods of studying psychosis. Two alternative strategies--the development of empirical methods of psychiatric classification and the study of individual symptoms--are discussed.
在超过90年的研究中，精神分裂症诊断的有无一直被用作自变量，但关于假设的精神分裂症疾病过程的病因，几乎没有确定的发现。缺乏进展的一个可能原因是，精神分裂症不是科学探究的有效对象。已发表研究（主要由杰出的精神病学家进行）的数据被审查，这对以下方面产生了怀疑：（i）可靠性，（ii）结构效度，（iii）预测效度，以及（iv）精神分裂症诊断的病因特异性。有人认为，对精神分裂症病因的持续研究可能证明是徒劳的，心理学家应该采用研究精神病的替代方法。讨论了两种替代策略——精神病学分类实证方法的发展和个体症状的研究。
