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| Schizoaffective disorders |
The evidence at present available as to whether schizoaffective disorders (F25.-) as
defined in the ICD-10 should be placed in block F20-F29 (schizophrenia, schizotypal
and delusional disorders) or in F30-F39 (mood [affective] disorders) is fairly evenly
balanced. The final decision to place it in F20-F29 was influenced by feedback from the
field trials of the 1987 draft, and by comments resulting from the worldwide circulation
of the same draft to member societies of the World Psychiatric Association. It is clear
that widespread and strong clinical traditions exist that favour its retention among
schizophrenia and delusional disorders. It is relevant to this discussion that, given a set of
affective symptoms, the addition of only mood-incongruent delusions is not sufficient to
change the diagnosis to a schizoaffective category. At least one typically schizophrenic
symptom must be present with the affective symptoms during the same episode of the
disorder.
