Posted by banga on January 6, 2005, at 13:13:03
In reply to Re: Schizoaffective disorder? What do you think? long, posted by DanielJ on January 6, 2005, at 11:38:52
If we're strictly speaking whether the diagnosis fits, the key is having hallucinations and problems at times without feeling depressed.
Keep in mind, "pure" (whatever that means)major depression can have psychotic features. Supposedly indiagnosing, you try to distinguish whether the hallucinations and delusions are from schizophrenia (or schizoaffective, which is an alternation of depression and schizophrenia) versus depression by asking whether the hallucinations and delusions fit the mood (that is, are all the hallucinations and delusions in sync with depresson--negative, degrading messages, etc., versus believing you are God or something similar--which at least I'd think means positive feeling about yourself--thus doesnt fit with your depressed mood. And also do you have psychotic symptoms at times without being depressed.I am not saying this to say I agree or diagree with the classification, or what your diagnosis could be. I just mean it is difficult to pick all this apart---people with "pure" Major Depressive disorder can experience mixed up thinking and hallucinations when really low, and people with schizophrenia are very frequently extremely depressed. Schizoaffective disorder is a (by the way, highly criticized) diagnosis designation the people who seem to truly have both diagnoses that intermingle in a very specific way.
All in all, it doesnt really matter in my mind, these lines between the diagnoses are fairly arbitrary. My paper on schizoaffective disorder in grad school--looking at the genetics--could not find supportive evidence that it is a disorder distinct from depression and schizophrenia, or that it is related to one and not the other, at least biologically speaking. And even then Im not saying it doesnt exist--just giving info.
I have major depression, and in one period I was very close to being delusional. My mom had depression, and she did become highly delusional at least once.
poster:banga
thread:438299
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050103/msgs/438515.html