The continuing story of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: One condition or two?

Abstract

Although schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder remain separable in diagnostic systems, the validity of the distinction is uncertain. This study asked whether schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are distinguishable on selected cognitive, social cognitive and structural social brain measures. Outpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 44) or schizoaffective disorder (n = 29) and non-psychiatric control participants (n = 62) were studied. Patients were assessed clinically (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) and all participants were administered a battery of cognitive (MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery; Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Wide Range Achievement Reading) and social cognitive (Reading the Mind in the Eyes, Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test; MSCEIT) tasks. In addition, participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to yield cortical thickness data for 42 regions associated with the social brain network. Results showed no significant differences between patient groups on 17/18 cognitive/social cognitive and social brain cortical thickness measures. In contrast, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients differed from controls on 16/18 and 11/18 measures respectively. Schizoaffective disorder patients outperformed schizophrenia patients on an emotion regulation task (MSCEIT). Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are largely indistinguishable on key cognitive, social cognitive and neural measures. The continuing separation of these syndromes in diagnostic systems and disease models requires is questionable and requires further attention.

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“…Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder were combined, given the identical nature of the disorders to one another on key cognitive, social cognitive, and neural measures. 4 Approval for the study was granted by the Institutional Review Board of Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC Research and Development Committee.…”

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“…Data were derived from 112 healthy participants (81 males and 31 females) and 46 patients (34 males and 12 females) either with a diagnosis of SZ ( N = 35) or schizoaffective disorder (SZA) ( N = 11). Patients with SZ and SZA were included in the same group as they exhibit a similar pattern of cognitive impairments and structural brain abnormalities ( Amann et al , 2016 ; Hartman et al , 2019 ). Healthy participants were recruited through adverts placed in the Galway and Dublin areas, and patients were recruited from the local outpatient clinics and mental health services (e.g.…”

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“… 2 Therefore, since schizophrenia and different mood disorders can share several clinical similarities, it would be appropriated to consider these conditions together to explore their occurrence regarding hospitalizations. 3 …”

“…When older people show functional loss, they experience a variety of negative outcomes, such as higher rates of use of hospital services, institutionalization, and increased risk of death. 3 The progression of healthy aging to dementia must be considered a continuum, both in terms of the slow manifestation of the impairment of cognitive functions, as well as functional limitation. 4 Originally, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was considered a condition in which someone has minor cognitive decline, not severe enough to interfere significantly with daily life and A closer look at the epidemiology of schizophrenia and common mental disorders in Brazil INTRODUCTION S chizophrenia and common mental disorders are characterized by cognitive, emotional and behavioral disturbances which could culminate in impaired mental functioning, while potentially affecting every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.…”

“…2 Therefore, since schizophrenia and different mood disorders can share several clinical similarities, it would be appropriated to consider these conditions together to explore their occurrence regarding hospitalizations. 3 Further, common mental disorders often includes depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, not necessarily including conditions related to drug abuse. 4,5 Hence, considering the high comorbidity level between several mental disorders, psychiatric epidemiology commonly reports the prevalence of combined disorders, since data can improve transdiagnostic interventions and the effectiveness of mental health policies.…”