In a pilot study of 150 manic or depressive patients, the authors used
the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and the Schedule for Affective
Disorders and schizophrenia (SADS) to perform preliminary analysis of
symptom pictures of the index episode of different diagnostic groups, joint
diagnostic classification of the different subtypes of major depressive
disorder, and differential outcome by diagnostic groups. The results
suggest that schizophrenic symptoms in affective disorders do have
diagnostic and prognostic significance, that the term "psychotic
depression" should be limited to impaired reality testing without reference
to degree of incapacitation, that situational-nonsituational and
endogenous-nonendogenous classifications are separate depressive subtypes,
and that it may not be true that patients with endogenous major depressive
disorder have a better prognosis than patients with nonendogenous
depression.Abstract Teaser