A salience dysregulation syndrome

The abstract of an editorial published in the February 2009 edition of The British Journal of Psychiatry:

By Jim van Os, MRCPsych (pictured}

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology
Maastricht University Medical Centre
PO BOX 616 (DRT10) Maastricht
The Netherlands



Revisions of DSM and ICD are forthcoming. Should the old categories of psychotic disorder, in particular the construct of schizophrenia, be retained or is a new system of representation of psychosis in order? It is argued that both scientific and societal developments point to a system of classification combining categorical and dimensional representations of psychosis in DSM and ICD. Furthermore, it is proposed to introduce, analogous to the functional descriptive term `metabolic syndrome', the diagnosis of salience dysregulation syndrome. Within this syndrome, three sub-categories may be identified, based on scientific evidence of relatively valid and specific contrasts: with affective expression; with developmental expression; and not otherwise specified.

Posting of this abstract is for the purposes of research into schizophrenia and psychosis.