Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:926-936
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
The heterogeneity of schizoaffective disorder: implications for treatment
JJ Levitt and MT Tsuang
Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, MA 02401.
Until the 1970s, schizophrenia tended to be broadly defined in the United
States, and the diagnosis subsumed patients who had affective as well as
schizophrenic symptoms. With the introduction of lithium, however,
manic-depressive illness became susceptible to treatment and gained
attractiveness as a diagnosis. The ambiguous position of patients with
schizoaffective disorder became clear. Cross-sectionally they were seen to
resemble schizophrenic patients, but longitudinally they were more akin to
patients with affective disorder. Numerous studies have attempted to
establish that they are diagnostically distinct, but without clear results.
The authors suggest that schizoaffective disorder is heterogeneous and that
its treatment should be determined by specific indices as to its subtype.
