Schizoaffective Disorder: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
The Schizoaffective Disorder it is a controversial disorder at a theoretical level, but a clinical reality that affects 0.3% of the population. Knowing its symptoms, effects and characteristics that can explain its causes is to know this diagnostic category.
What is Schizoaffective Disorder?
Broadly speaking, we can understand Schizoaffective Disorder as a mental disorder that combines psychotic symptomatology (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, very disorganized behavior or symptomatology negative expression such as decreased emotional expression or apathy) and mood disorders (mania-depression).
Thus, Schizoaffective Disorder fundamentally affects perception and psychological processes of an emotional nature.
Symptoms and diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizoaffective Disorder is usually diagnosed during the period of psychotic illness due to its spectacular symptoms. Episodes of depression or mania are present for most of the duration of the illness.
Due to the wide variety of psychiatric and medical conditions that can be associated with psychotic symptoms and mood symptoms, on many occasions it can be confuse Schizoaffective Disorder with other disorders, such as bipolar disorder with psychotic characteristics, major depressive disorder with psychotic characteristics... In a way
the limits of this diagnostic category are unclear, and this is what causes a debate about whether it is an independent clinical entity or the coexistence of several disorders.To distinguish it from other disorders (such as bipolar), psychotic characteristics, delusions or hallucinations they must be present for at least 2 weeks in the absence of a major mood episode (depressive or manic). Thus, the criteria used to distinguish between Schizoaffective Disorder and other types of mental disorders is, fundamentally, the time (duration, frequency of appearance of symptoms, etc).
The difficulty in diagnosing this disorder lies in knowing whether mood symptoms have been present for most of the time. total active and residual duration of the disease, determining when there were significant mood symptoms accompanied by the symptoms psychotic. To know these data, the health professional must thoroughly know the subject's medical history.
Who suffers from this type of psychopathology?
The prevalence of Schizoaffective Disorder in the population is 0.3%. It is estimated that its frequency is one third of the population affected by schizophrenia.
Its incidence is higher in the female population. This is mainly due to the higher incidence of depressive-type symptoms among women in comparison to that of men, something that possibly has genetic causes but also cultural and social.
When does it usually start to develop?
There is consensus in stating that the age of onset of Schizoaffective Disorder usually occurs in adult life early, although this does not prevent it from occurring during adolescence or in the later stages of lifetime.
In addition, there is a differentiated pattern of appearance according to the age of the person who begins to experience symptoms. Schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type tends to prevail in young adults, while in older adults the depressive-type Schizoaffective Disorder tends to prevail.
How does Schizoaffective Disorder influence people who suffer from it?
The way in which Schizoaffective Disorder leaves a mark on the day-to-day lives of those who experience it has to do with practically all areas of life. However, some main aspects can be highlighted:
The ability to continue to function at the work level is normally affected, although, unlike what happens with schizophrenia, this is not decisive as a defining criterion.
Social contact is diminished for Schizoaffective Disorder. The capacity for self-care is also affected although, as in the previous cases, the symptoms are usually less severe and persistent than in schizophrenia.
Anosognosia or absence of introspection it is common in Schizoaffective Disorder, being less serious than in schizophrenia.
There is the possibility of being associated with alcohol-related disorders or other substances.
Forecast
Schizoaffective Disorder tends to have a better prognosis than schizophrenia. On the contrary, its prognosis is usually worse than that of mood disorders, among other things because the symptoms related to perception problems represent a very abrupt qualitative change to what would be expected in a person without this disorder, while mood disturbances can be understood as a problem of the type rather quantitative.
In general, the improvement that occurs is understood from both a functional and a neurological point of view. We can then place it in an intermediate position between the two.
The higher the prevalence of psychotic symptoms, the more chronicity of the disorder. The duration of the disease course also plays a role. The longer the duration, the greater the chronicity.
Treatment and psychotherapy
To date, there are no tests or biological measures that can help us diagnose Schizoaffective Disorder. There is no certainty as to whether there is a difference on a neurobiological basis between Schizoaffective Disorder and schizophrenia in terms of their associated characteristics (such as your brain, structural or functional abnormalities, cognitive deficits and factors genetic). Therefore, in this case planning highly effective therapies is very difficult.
Clinical intervention, therefore, focuses on the possibility of mitigating symptoms and training patients in accepting new standards of life and managing their emotions and self-care behaviors and social.
For the pharmacological treatment of Schizoaffective Disorder, antipsychotics, antidepressants and empowering, while the most indicated psychotherapy for Schizoaffective Disorder would be of the type cognitive-behavioral. In order to implement this last action, the two pillars of the disorder must be treated.
On the one hand, the treatment of mood disorder, helping the patient to detect and work on depressive or manic symptoms.
On the other hand, treating psychotic symptoms may help reduce and control delusions and hallucinations. It is known that conviction in these fluctuates over time and that they can be modified and diminished by cognitive-behavioral interventions. To address delirium, for example, it can help to clarify the way in which the patient constructs their reality and gives meaning to their experiences based on cognitive errors and their history of lifetime. This approach can be done in a similar way with hallucinations.