Several contributions in our first book about schizo affective disorders (Marneros and Tsuang, Schizoaffective Psychoses, Springer-Verlag, 1986) supported the assumption that schizoaffective disorders differ in relevant ways from schizophrenic disorders. The classification of schizo affective disorders as a subgroup of schizophrenia has also been criticized, and empirical research in clinical, genetic, therapeutic, and prognostic areas supports the idea that there are some strong similari ties between schizo affective and affective disorders. Of course, there are not only similarities between these two groups, but also differences just as there are between schizo affective and schizophrenic disorders. It is precisely the existence of similarities and differences between schizo affective disorders and the other two so-called typical mental disorders, i.e., schizophrenia and affective disorders, which makes them a challenge in psychiatric research, a challenge to the traditional dichotomy in the classification of disorders which originated with Kraepelin. This challenge is certainly proving fruitful in psychiatric research. These "cases in between" may well demonstrate that sep arating, dividing, and limiting is not always meaningful. Sometimes it can be more meaningful to unify; to unify in the sense of building bridges between typical groups. It is here that the assumption of a "psychotic continuum" can become relevant, and the investigation of schizoaffective disorders is of prime importance in research on a possible continuum of psychosis.

Are the Schizoaffective Disorders a Ping-Pong Ball Between Schizophrenia and the Affective Disorders?

What Are the Schizophrenic and the Affective Aspects of Schizoaffective Disorders?
Definition and Classification of Schizoaffective Disorders Based on Long-Term Course
The Schizoaffective Continuum: Non-Psychotic, Mood Congruent, and Mood Incongruent
The Predictive Value of Grouping Schizo affective Psychoses Together with Affective Psychoses: Jaspers' Hierarchical Rule Revised
Schizoaffective Disorders in Clinical Routine: Symptomatology, Etiology, and Course
Cycloid and Affective Disorders: Reproduction, Motherhood, Postpartum Psychoses, and Offspring Characteristics
The Course of Juvenile Schizo affective and Schizophrenic Psychoses: The Use of Pattern Analysis for Classifying the Development of Schizophrenia-Like Illnesses
Schizoaffective Disorders in the Elderly
Life Events in Affective and Schizoaffective Disorders
Follow-Up Studies of Schizoaffective Disorders: A Comparison with Affective Disorders
Sociodemographic and Premorbid Features of Schizophrenic, Schizoaffective, and Affective Psychoses
Course of Affective and Schizoaffective Disorders
Long-Term Outcome of Affective, Schizoaffective, and Schizophrenic Disorders: A Comparison
Suicide in Affective and Schizoaffective Disorders
Schizoaffective Disorders: Interrelationships Between Familial Psychopathology, Neuroendocrine Assessments, and Outcome
Genetic Relationship Between the Psychoses - Implications for Genetic Modeling
Morbid Risks in Relatives of Affective, Schizoaffective, and Schizophrenic Patients - Results of a Family Study
Dexamethasone Suppression Test in Schizoaffective Disorders
Neuroleptic-Induced and Postremissive Depression in Schizophrenia.-Antidepressants and Neuroleptics in Treatment and Prophylaxis of Schizoaffective Psychoses
Lithium in Treatment and Prophylaxis of Affective and Schizoaffective Disorders
Alternatives to Lithium Prophylaxis for Affective and Schizoaffective Disorders
The Heterogeneity of Schizoaffective Disorders
Schizoaffective Disorders: A Separate Disease?.