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Ency. home > Disease > S > Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder   

Overview | Symptoms | Treatment

Symptoms

The clinical signs and symptoms of schizoaffective disorder include all the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, manic episodes, and depressive disorders. The schizophrenic and mood disorder symptoms can appear together or in an alternating fashion. The course can vary from one of exacerbations and remissions to one of a long-term deteriorating pattern. The symptoms of schizoaffective disorder vary greatly from person to person.

  • Symptoms of a major depressive, manic, or mixed episode, include:
    • elevated, inflated, or depressed mood
    • irritability and poor temper control
    • symptoms that could be seen during a manic or depressed state (i.e., changes in appetite, energy, sleep)
  • Symptoms of schizophrenia that persist for at least two weeks in the absence of prominent mood symptoms:
    • hallucinations (particularly auditory hallucinations, "hearing voices")
    • delusions of reference (for example, believing that someone on TV or the radio is speaking directly to you or that secret messages are hidden in common objects)
    • paranoia (a feeling that everyone or a particular person or agency is out to get you)
    • deteriorating concern with hygeine, grooming
    • incoherent speech

Signs and Tests

  • psychological evaluation for identification of symptoms
  • history of current behavior and symptoms

The combination of psychotic and affective symptoms seen in schizoaffective disorder can be seen in other illnesses, particularly in episodes of bipolar disorder with psychotic features. In these illnesses, as well as in schizoaffective disorder, the mood disturbance is a prominent part of the illness.

However, in schizoaffective disorder, the psychotic symptoms do not necessarily remit with effective treatment of the mood symptoms as they do in mood disorders with psychotic features. Also, they usually persist for at least two weeks without symptoms of mania or major depression.

Any medical, psychiatric, or drug related condition that causes psychotic or mood symptoms must be considered. Patients undergoing treatment with steroids, abusers of cocaine, amphetamines and phencyclidine (PCP), and some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy are particularly likely to have concurrent schizophrenic and mood disorder symptoms.

Ency. home > Disease > S > Schizoaffective disorder

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