title: Classification and course of schizo-affective psychoses. Follow-up of patients treated with lithium.
abstract: 68 patients given an ICD (international classification of diseases) diagnosis of schizo-affective disorder during a hospitalization and consecutively treated in a lithium outpatient clinic were investigated. In a 'polydiagnostic approach' the overlaps and differences between different classificatory systems were assessed. A grouping of the patients according to a 'schizophrenic axial syndrome' with an emphasis on specific thought disorders showed significant differences between these groups in regard to the development of residual symptoms. Furthermore, a relationship between the absence of the schizophrenic axial syndrome and a good response to prophylactic lithium treatment was observed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D008094:Lithium