Diagnostic terms psychiatrists prefer to use for common psychotic and personality disorders

Objective: There are ongoing discussions on updating various standard psychiatric terms, including schizo-phrenia, which can be confusing, and personality disorders, which can be pejorative. To contribute to this process, suggestions and recommendations on terminology were sought from academic psychiatrists with sub-stantial clinical experience.Methods: In an online survey, 263 psychiatrists were asked how often they used alternative instead of standard terms for the diagnosis or symptom description of psychotic disorders and DSM Cluster B personality disorders. They were also asked what specific terms they preferred to use. Reasons for their views and choices were obtained.Results: 125 clinicians (48%) responded. Only a minority of clinicians (31%) tended to use the term schizo-phrenia often, preferring to say psychosis or to refer to thinking and perceptual problems. Even lower pro-portions of clinicians (7-14%) often use the terms for Cluster B personality disorder subtypes: antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic, and borderline. Alternatives suggested for these disorders included discussing emotional dysregulation, traits of sensitivity and reactivity, and relational difficulties. Reasons cited for choosing alter-native terms were to avoid miscommunication (71% of responders) and to avoid offending the patient (78% of responders).Conclusions: There are practical alternatives to standard psychiatric terminology that may improve communi-cation with patients and be more respectful choices, as well. The suggestions of the psychiatrists responding to this survey might be of immediate value to others in their practices and might be worthy of consideration by those writing the next versions of the standard manuals, both the DSM and the ICD.

Automated summary

The study found that a minority of psychiatrists frequently used the term "schizophrenia", opting instead for alternative terms such as "psychosis" or descriptions of thinking and perceptual problems. Similarly, only a small proportion of psychiatrists frequently used the specific terms for Cluster B personality disorder subtypes, preferring alternative descriptions such as emotional dysregulation or traits of sensitivity and reactivity.