Evaluating clinicians' representations of schizoaffective disorder.

BACKGROUND: Schizoaffective disorder (SAD) has routinely exhibited poor diagnostic accuracy and reliability. In addition to phenomenological problems with the definition of SAD, the way in which clinicians represent the symptoms of the disorder could contribute to its poor diagnostic outcomes.

PURPOSE: The present study sought to examine clinicians' representations of SAD compared to schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder with psychotic features (BiPD-PSY), and major depressive disorder with psychotic features (MDD-PSY).

METHOD: Participants (N=113) were clinicians recruited via email as part of a larger study. They were randomly assigned to either select symptoms from a predetermined criteria list or freely list features of the disorders based on their own mental representations.

RESULTS: Participants' conceptualizations of SAD were not entirely congruent with DSM-5 criteria; they conceptualized it as less psychotic than SCZ and less affective than the two mood disorder tasks. SAD was conceptualized as significantly more depressive than manic.

CONCLUSIONS: This study's findings support the notion that clinicians' conceptualizations of SAD are not entirely congruent with its DSM-5 criteria, which could contribute to diagnostic difficulties.