New therapies help people with schizophrenia – but access is woefully inadequate

Schizophrenia as it is currently known by specialists was first described in 1899 by Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist (above) who combined several disorders previously thought to be separate under a single label. He called it “dementia praecox,” or early-onset dementia…. Today, schizophrenia in the U.S. is diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, or DSM, which is the gold standard for classification of psychiatric conditions. The DSM’s definition criteria are based on many of the same signs and symptoms that Kraepelin described more than 125 years ago.