Mental illness support group Zenkaren on Sunday will start soliciting the public for a new Japanese term for schizophrenia to help eliminate the strong prejudice associated with the debilitating disorder, Zenkaren officials said Thursday.
The move by Zenkaren, which has been lobbying for the change since 1993, follows a decision by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology earlier this year to change the Japanese term "seishin bunretsubyo," which means "mental breakdown disorder."
The society is looking for a more accurate term for schizophrenia, which is a psychosis that is a separate condition from split or multiple personality disorder, and in which violent behavior is seen only in a minority of patients.
Seishin bunretsubyo does not accurately represent the nature of schizophrenia and carries a stigma that prevents patients from reintegrating with society, an official of the group said, noting that it encourages intolerance by suggesting the disorder is dangerous and that the patient's personality is disintegrating.
A new name for the illness will be submitted to the society for consideration, the official said.
A society committee has come up with three suggestions: a phonetic version of the English name -- Kraepelin-Bleuler Disorder -- which came from the two men who first identified it, and "togoshicchosho," which roughly means "integrated disorder."
The new name will be officially presented in August at an international convention on mental illness in Yokohama.