The longitudinal course of schizoaffective disorders. A prospective follow-up study

To study whether outcome of schizoaffective psychosis is more similar to that of schizophrenia, or major affective disorders, or whether it shows an intermediate pattern between these two disorders, we conducted a prospective follow-up study of 167 patients from two hospitals. Thirty-nine schizoaffective patients, 47 schizophrenic patients, 33 manic patients, and 48 patients with major depressive disorders were assessed during hospitalization and then followed up 1 year after hospital discharge. Standardized assessments were conducted of patients' work functioning, social adjustment, symptom outcome, rehospitalization, treatment at follow-up, and their overall posthospital adjustment. The data indicated the following: a) On both major scales of overall outcome, schizoaffective patients' posthospital adjustment was significantly poorer than that of patients with major affective disorders (p less than .01), and showed a nonsignificant tendency to be better than that of schizophrenics. Only 10 per cent of the schizoaffective patients had very favorable outcomes. b) There were no significant differences in overall outcome between schizoaffective patients who were manic vs. depressed, or mainly affective vs. mainly schizophrenic (p greater than .20). c) Both the schizoaffective and affectively disordered patient groups had significantly better posthospital work functioning than did the schizophrenic patients (p less than .05). d) However, both the schizoaffective and schizophrenic groups had significantly poorer posthospital social functioning than did the affectively disordered patients. Overall, the data suggest that outcome of schizoaffective disorders differs in some ways from that of both schizophrenia and affective disorders.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)