Behaviors & symptoms of some individuals don't fit into either major mood disorder or schizophrenia. Instead, they seem to have some characteristics that belong in both categories. SCHIZOAFFECTIVE DISORDER is the diagnostic category that deals with this "real world messiness" as observed by clinicians, because it combines some of the characteristics of psychosis with those of a major mood disorder. In a study comparing 3 groups of outpatients who had the respective diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia & mood disorder, one study found that the patients with either schizoaffective disorder or depression were more depressed than those with schizophrenia & had less severe positive symptoms ( Evans et al ..1999). Both outpatients with schizophrenia & schizoaffective disorder had poor neuropsychological performance than the depressed outpatient.
For schizoafgective disorder to be diagnosed, delusions or hallucinations must occur even when symptoms of depressed or manic mood are not present. In addition, there must be an uninterrupted period of illness in which either a major depressive episode, a manic episode or an episode containing both occur during the same period in which the person meets the criteria od schizophrenia. The mood characteristics must be present during acute phase as well as during the period when acute symptoms have subsided.
It's estimated that lifetime prevalence of schizoaffective disorder is between 0.5% to 0.8%, somewhat less than prevalence of schizophrenia. Like schizophrenia, the age at which schizoaffecrive disorder typically begins is late adolescence or early adulthood. But , in general, the early outcome of those schizoaffective disorder is more favorable than of those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder may be thought as a schizophrenic spectrum & described by the same model that's basis of international view of schizophrenia.
It may occur in people who have moderate vulnerability to schizophrenia & who, when they experience the stress of a major mood disorder, show some asymptomatic of schizophrenia as well. Antipsychotic medication & lithium are the biological treatments most often used if there are clear manic symptoms in schizoaffective disorder.
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