Individuals with schizophrenia have significant deficits in premorbid social and academic adjustment compared to individuals with non-psychotic diagnoses. However, it is unclear how severity and developmental trajectory of premorbid maladjustment compare across psychotic disorders. This study examined the association between premorbid functioning (in childhood, early adolescence, and late adole...

The diagnostic validity of the schizoaffective syndrome is assessed from a genetic vantage point. Five studies are reviewed that meet specific methodological requirements. No evidence is provided for the transmission of schizoaffective disorder as a diagnostic entity. The relationship of the schizoaffective syndrome to manic-depressive illness and to schizophrenia is unresolved, and genetic ove...

BACKGROUND Hospital-discharged patients with schizoaffective disorder have a high risk of re-hospitalization. However, limited data exist evaluating critical post-discharge periods during which the risk of re-hospitalization is significant. OBJECTIVE Among hospital-discharged patients with schizoaffective disorder, we assessed pharmacotherapy adherence and healthcare utilization and costs dur...

BACKGROUND Off-label use of a drug not according to its regulatory labeling has become common in medicine, especially in the field of psychiatry. Mood stabilizers are intended to be used to attenuate mood fluctuations in bipolar disorder, but their use has spread to patients with schizophrenia, as it provides greater control of impulsivity and aggressiveness. Sodium valproate is one of the most...

BACKGROUND Ritualistic behaviors are common in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), while catatonic stupor occasionally occurs in psychotic or mood disorders. Schizoaffective disorder is a specific mental disorder involving both psychotic and affective symptoms. The syndrome usually represents a specific diagnosis, as in the case of the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseas...

The degree of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation in depressed patients with schizoaffective disorder was compared to that seen in patients with major depressive disorder with and without delusional features. The frequency of nonsuppression to dexamethasone was similar for all three diagnostic groups. Maximum postdexamethasone plasma cortisol was greater for delusional depre...

INTRODUCTION Neuropsychological aspects of paranoid schizophrenia have still not been examined enough.These disorders are usually not studied separately, but are included in the studies about schizophrenic patients with positive symptoms. Despite the fact that schizophrenia represents a heterogeneous group of mental disorders, usually it is not separated from schizoaffective disorder in neurops...

A wide variety of concepts have been proposed to account for schizoaffective psychoses. Presenting a mixture of schizophrenic and affective symptoms, these psychoses have long defied classification in the usual scheme of the two major diagnostic categories, schizophrenia and major affective disorder. Empirical findings are often contradictory, and have sometimes supported the classification of ...

Because of the continued controversy about the nature of the schizoaffective disorders and their relationships to schizophrenia and the affective disorders, a thorough review of the concept, genetics, treatment, outcome, and biological aspects of the schizoaffective disorders in relationship to schizophrenia and the affective disorders appears timely. The use of explicit criteria for schizoaffe...