Schizoaffective Disorder in LifePRESENTATION AND WEBSITE BY EDWARD AND KELLEY CURRAN

https://schizoaffectiveinlife.wordpress.com/

What is Schizoaffective Disorder?

This disorder is a mix of mental health conditions – including schizophrenia and mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder.

Schizophrenia may include hallucinations, delusions, and an extreme disorder in thinking and behavior, which is very comparable to Schizoaffective Disorder. (Mayo Clinic)

Also, Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, causes extreme mood swings of emotional highs and lows – which is very common in patients that have Schizoaffective Disorder.

Videos (Part I)

Videos (Part II)

Empirical Article Research I: QEEG Spectrum Analysis of Patients with Schizoaffective Disorder Compared to Normal Subjects

Goal: To achieve a better understanding of the disorder under question using quantitative electroencephalogram signals (QEEG).

Participants: 25 men, ages 23-66 and 15 women, ages 22-57 with schizoaffective disorder; 23 men, ages 18-55 and 17 women, ages 18-53 with no disorder (normal people).

Methods: The researchers in Razi hospital used EEG to record signals on different brain waves in certain lobes of the brain to see differences between healthy patients and SAD patients.

Results: Normal patients saw alpha waves in their occipital and centroparietal lobes, while the SAD affected patients saw delta waves. Thus, a significant difference in brain patterns showed how sufferers process similar experiences differently.

Empirical Article Research II: Clinical outcomes of a coping with stress training program among patients suffering from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: a pilot study

Goal: The purpose of this study was to study how stress coping skills can help patients with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia and their families to control their brain-and-mind disorders by using training programs.

Participants: 14 patients between the ages of 21-60, 12 suffering from schizophrenia and 2 suffering from schizoaffective disorder

Methods: Creating an experimental group and a control group; the control group was “waitlisted” for treatment (but never received it) and the experimental group received CSSE training and drug therapy.

Results: This study found that patients trained in CSSE showed a significant decrease in psychotic symptoms following the intervention.

Empirical Article Research III: Heterogeneity of schizoaffective disorder compared with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Goal: the researchers thought schizoaffective disorder could be characterized by heterogeneity when compared with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and they wanted to test whether heterogeneity is larger in schizoaffective disorder than in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Participants: No actual participants. This study consisted of research on 920 articles from a database.

Methods: A systematic search for studies simultaneously compared all three diagnoses with direct regard to their demographic, clinical, psychometric, and biological parameters, using a comparison of heterogeneity from the studies measured by standard deviation.

Results: Schizoaffective disorder was found to be no more diverse than many of the other functional psychoses, in particular the two in this study, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Empirical Article Research IV: Predicting 10-year quality-of-life outcomes of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders

Goal: researchers questioned if quality of life (QOL) increases over time in sufferers of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. They aimed to predict 10-year good versus poor perceived general quality of life outcomes from baseline variables in people with each disorder.

Participants: 108 male patients, mean age 48.1, who met DSM-IV criteria for schizoaffective and schizophrenia were followed for 10 years.

Methods: logistic regression analysis that was used in determining 10-year QOL outcomes from baseline data; measured by results of multiple questionnaires and scales.

Results: Researchers predicted patients with the disorders would have positive predictor scores of paranoia, psychopathy, obsessiveness, etc. on their evaluations that would correlate to future reality. 87 % of participants with positive predictor scores had similar scores / evaluations 10 years after the first evaluation.

A Brief History of Schizoaffective Disorder

Jacob Kasanin coined the term schizoaffective psychosis in 1933, to describe psychotic illnesses with predominant affective symptoms (mood disorder like symptoms).

Schizoaffective disorder is mostly recognized in relation to schizophrenia.

This disorder is not vastly studied, and there are many objections to the diagnostic process and if it should be classified as its own disorder or not.

Quiz Time!

Feel free to ask questions if any arise!

References Moeini, M., Khaleghi, A., Amiri, N., & Niknam, Z. (2014). Quantitative electroencephalogram

(QEEG) Spectrum Analysis of Patients with Schizoaffective Disorder Compared to Normal Subjects. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry, 9(4), 216-221.

Pérez, M., Godoy-Izquierdo, D., & Godoy, J. (2013). Clinical outcomes of a coping with stress training program among patients suffering from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: A pilot study. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 26(2), 1-17.

Pagel, T., Baldessarini, R., Franklin, J., & Baethge, C. (2013). Heterogeneity of schizoaffective disorder compared with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica,128, 238–250-238–250.

Ritsner, M., Lisker, A., & Grinshpoon, A. (2014). Predicting 10-year quality-of-life outcomes of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 68, 308–317-308–317.

The Schizoaffective Disorder Diagnosis: A Conundrum in the Clinical Setting.European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience. Volume 15. Issue 3. Pages 229-239. Wilson, J., Nian, H., & Heckers, S. (2013).

Heterogeneity of schizoaffective disorder compared with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Volume 128. Issue 4. Pages 238-250. Pagel, T., Baldessarini, R., Franklin, J., & Baethge, C. (2013).

Characteristics of patients diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder compared with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorders. Volume 15. Issue 3. Pages 230-240. Pagel, T., Baldessarini, R., Franklin, J., & Baethge, C. (2013).