Sluggishly progressing schizophrenia or sluggish schizophrenia (Russian: вялотекущая шизофрения, vyalotekushchaya shizofreniya) was a category of schizophrenia diagnosed by psychiatrists in the Soviet Union to justify involuntary treatment of political dissidents. It was defined as a special form of the illness which supposedly affected only the person's social behavior, with no influence on other traits: "most frequently, ideas about a 'struggle for truth and justice' are formed by personalities with a paranoid structure", according to Moscow Serbsky Institute professors. The diagnostic criteria were vague enough to be applied to nearly anyone, as desired. The dissidents were forcibly hospitalized and subjected to treatments which included antipsychotic drugs and electroconvulsive therapy.
Sluggish schizophrenia is not included in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10); however, its Russian version adds sluggish schizophrenia to schizotypal personality disorder in section F21 of chapter V.
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