Major Depressive Order
...(thought disorder) symptoms, with substantial loss of occupational and social functioning. Since this disorder is a mixture of two disorders thought to have different biochemical origins, schizoaffective disorder is somewhat of a puzzle to many clinicians. Affective disorders cause people to be extremely elated or depressed, and schizophrenia is expressed as positive, negative, or disorganized symptoms. The fact that patients with affective disorders can experience positive and negative symptoms, plus the fact that patients with schizophrenia experience mood changes, partially explains the difficulty in diagnosis (Keltner, Schwecke and Bostrom, 2003). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV TR), the diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder include an uninterrupted period of illness during which, at some time, there is either, a Major Depressive Episode, a Manic Episode, or a Mixed Episode concurrent with symptoms that meet Criterion A for Schizophrenia.
Criteria for Manic Episode includes a distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting at least 1 week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary). During the period of mood disturbance, at least three of the following symptoms have persisted (four if the mood is only irritable) and have been present to a significant degree:
Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
Decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down)
Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
Distractibility (i.e.,...
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