OBJECTIVES Single nucleotide allelic variants in the promoter region of the chromosome 15 alpha-7 acetylcholine nicotinic receptor gene (CHRNA7) are associated with both schizophrenia and the P50 auditory evoked potential sensory gating deficit. The purpose of this study was to determine if CHRNA7 promoter allelic variants are also associated with abnormal P50 ratios in persons with schizoaffec...

BACKGROUND Utilization of diagnostic information from national patient registries rests on the quality of the registered diagnoses. We aimed to investigate the agreement and consistency of diagnoses of psychotic and bipolar disorders in the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) compared to structured interview-based diagnoses given as part of a clinical research project. METHODS Diagnostic data fr...

Schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder are common psychiatric disorders with high heritabilities and variable phenotypes. The Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene, on chromosome 1q42, was originally discovered and linked to schizophrenia in a Scottish kindred carrying a balanced translocation that disrupts DISC1 and DISC2. More recently, DISC1 was linked to schizophr...

This research examined the longitudinal courses of thought disorder in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and other psychotic and nonpsychotic disorders. One-hundred-eighty young psychiatric inpatients were prospectively diagnosed at an early stage of illness and followed up and evaluated for thought disorder at 2, 4.5, and 7.5 years post-index hospitalization. Patterns of thought disorde...

The impact of emotional arousal may be an equal or more important factor than valence in determining whether emotion interferes with language output in individuals with schizophrenia. An affective reactivity task, comprising conditions separated by emotional valence (positive, negative) and arousal (low, high), was administered to 22 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder an...

OBJECTIVE Schizoaffective disorders are well established. Nevertheless, the definition in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-IV are insufficient. METHOD Critical review of the literature from Kahlbaum (1863) to the 21st century. RESULTS Many authors have described people suddenly developing a disorder with both 'schizophreni...

Introduction: Antipsychotics are often used to manage the affective (manic and depressive) and psychotic symptoms of patients with schizoaffective disorder. However, it is difficult to determine whether observed improvements in depressive symptoms are achieved through effects on depressive symptoms or effects on psychotic symptoms. This analysis evaluated the effect of antipsychotic treatment o...

The purpose of this study was to examine social context processing in persons with schizophrenia. A secondary goal was to examine the ecological validity of these measures (i.e. how they relate to social behavior in the treatment setting). The performance of 35 persons with DSM-IV diagnosed schizophrenia and/or schizoaffective disorder was compared to a non-clinical control sample of 46 individ...

1. Inadequate presentation of the heterogeneity of clinical syndromes 2. Treatment of schizoaffective disorder as an episode diagnosis with unclear separation from schizophrenia 3. Poor reliability and low diagnostic stability of schizoaffective disorder 4. Variable definitions and discrepant treatment of catatonia across disorders in DSM-IV 5. The limited role and validity of schizophrenia sub...