Published in:
01-03-2015 | Letter to the Editor
DSM-5 schizoaffective disorder: will clinical utility be enhanced?
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 3/2015
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Recently, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the DSM-5, was published following extensive scrutiny and elaborate revision of the DSM-IV. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the main concerns in modifying DSM-IV included optimizing clinical utility, upholding continuity with previous editions, and that recommendations should be directed by research evidence [1]. Therefore, the result expected was to be a text that is more useful for medical practitioners, patients and policy makers, and which should reveal not only scientific advances in our understanding of the causes and consequences of psychiatric disorders, but also common usage. The current DSM-5 criteria for schizoaffective disorder (SAD) makes schizoaffective disorder a longitudinal diagnosis instead of a cross-sectional diagnosis that existed in DSM-IV. Specifically it requires:
(A)
An uninterrupted period of illness during which there is a Major Mood Episode (Major Depressive or Manic) concurrent with Criterion A of Schizophrenia.
(B)
Delusions or hallucinations for 2 or more weeks in the absence of a Major Mood Episode (Depressive or Manic) during the lifetime duration of the illness.
(C)
Symptoms that meet criteria for a Major Mood Episode are present for the majority of the total duration of the active and residual portions of the illness.
(D)
The disturbance is not attributable to the effects of a substance or another medical condition [2].