DSM-III style diagnoses of the episodic disorders

The episodic disorders can be clearly differentiated from schizophrenia as now rigorously defined in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Edition. Because the affective disorder is a more heterogeneous one, the boundaries between this group and episodic disorders is less precise, but this boundary could be clarified with a rigorous definition of the affective disorders comparable to that utilized for schizophrenia. The acute mode of onset and the remitting course are the most useful differentiating features between schizophrenia and the episodic disorder. The presence of toxic or other organic symptoms, including clouding of sensorium, illusions, visual hallucinations, formes frustes of epilepsy, childhood history of minimal brain dysfunction or attentional deficits, and soft neurological signs, aid in differentiating the episodic disorders from manic and depressive episodes. There is a subgroup of episodic disorders that can be differentiated from the epileptoid or organic episodic disorders as well as from the major psychoses by psychodynamic factors alone.