It is no longer recognized as a separate condition, following the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) in 2013, which dropped the concept of subtypes of schizophrenia, and global adoption of the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2022.
[2][3] Disorganized schizophrenia was classified up to ICD-10[4] as a mental and behavioural disorder,[4] because the classification was thought to be an extreme expression of the disorganization syndrome that has been hypothesized to be one aspect of a three-factor model of symptoms in schizophrenia,[5] the other factors being reality distortion (involving delusions and hallucinations) and psychomotor poverty (lack of speech, lack of spontaneous movement and various aspects of blunting of emotion).
[6] The name referred to the ostensibly more prominent appearance of the disorder in persons between the ages of 15 and 25 years).
[7] The prominent characteristics of the subtype were considered to be disorganized behavior and speech (see formal thought disorder), including loosened associations and schizophasia ("word salad"), and flat or inappropriate affect, and psychiatrists had to have ruled out any possible sign of catatonic schizophrenia.
Behavioral disorganization, which may impair a sufferer's ability to carry out daily activities such as showering or eating, was also included.