Stability and change in the clinical course of schizoaffective disorder.

UNLABELLED Schizoaffective disorder currently raises several questions, one of them being related to the stability of the clinical diagnosis over time. The aim of this study is to identify the clinical and evolutional particularities in the longitudinal course of schizoaffective disorder. MATERIAL AND METHODS 44 subjects with a current diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder have been assessed prospectively. Following parameters were analyzed: socio-demographic (age at onset, gender, educational, professional and marital status at onset) and clinical (total duration of evolution, diagnosis at onset, duration of the evolution until the switch to the schizoaffective disorder diagnosis). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Socio-demographic parameters are similar to those in literature and the clinical assessment revealed that schizoaffective disorder is present as a diagnosis along with the longitudinal course of other types of psychosis. CONCLUSIONS Schizoaffective disorder appears as a heterogeneous pathology in terms of the longitudinal course.