Schizoaffective disorder

Updated June 4, 2014.

What do you get when you cross schizophrenia with bipolar disorder? Schizoaffective disorder. This is not so simple, but is a good way to think about this disease. The boundaries between mental disorders often blurred. General psychological diagnosis is not quite the same as the diagnosis of other disorders. Psychiatry is firmly rooted in the biomedical model, despite the fact that the "bio-psycho-model" has been proven superior in accounting for many diseases. Research continues to show that the mind and body are the same. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) is an attempt mental disorders based on medical model.What occurs when the symptoms do not quite fit to classify a category? Sometimes the answer is to make a new diagnosis. Schizoaffective disorder is diagnosed. The DSM-IV schizoaffective disorder defined as follows:

An uninterrupted period of illness during which, at some point, either (1) is either a depressive episode, (2) a manic episode, or (3) a mixed episode concurrent with symptoms that meet (4) A criterion of schizophrenia.

(1) The criteria for a depressive episode

• Five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period, a change from previous functioning; at least one of the symptoms is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.
• depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by the subject (eg, feels sad or empty) or observed by others (eg, appears tearful). Note: In children and adolescents irritated, the mood.
• marked diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities during the day, nearly every day (made by subjective account or observation by others either)
• diet without significant weight loss or weight gain (eg, a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day. Note: In children, consider, Are the expected weight gain to obtain.
• Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
• psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day (observed by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or slowed down)
• Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional) nearly every day (not merely self-reproach or guilt about sick)
• Ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day (made by subjective account or observation by others either) decreased
• to commit recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for suicide

(2) The criteria for a manic episode

• A distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated expansive or irritable, which lasts at least 1 week (or a hospital stay, duration if required).
• During the period of mood disturbance, three (or more) of the following symptoms have passed (four if the mood is only irritable) and have been present to a significant degree:
• inflated self-esteem or megalomania
• decreased need for sleep, more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking (eg feels after just 3 hours of sleep rested)
• Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
• Deflection (ie, attention too easily to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli) increase in goal-directed activity (, social work or in school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation activity
• excessive involvement in pleasurable activities with a high potential for painful consequences (eg, involvement in unrestrained buying spree, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

(3) The criteria for a mixed episode

• The criteria for both a manic episode and a major depressive episode (except for duration) nearly every day for at least a period of one week.

(4) Criterion A for Schizophrenia

Two (or more) of the following, each present for a substantial portion of the time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated)

• Illusions
• Hallucinations
• disorganized speech (eg, frequent derailment or incoherence)
• grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
• Negative symptoms, ie, affective flattening, alogia and avolition

(From the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition, American Psychiatric Association, 1994)

ICD-10-1 international developed by the World Health Organization diagnostic system has a different approach. They believe that it is. Around two different diseases I like your approach better than the DSM-IV and contains descriptions of behavior, without looking like a menu from a Chinese restaurant (one from Column A and two from column B). Excerpts from his descriptions are ...