Current Treatment of Schizoaffective Disorder According to a Neural Network

Abstract

Schizoaffective disorder, which is combined with schizophrenic and affective, i.e. depressive or manic or alternating depressive and manic symptoms, has a prevalance of 0.5%. Here, we describe the alterations of the most important classical neurotransmitters in the brain regions involved in schizophrenic and affective symptoms. Schizoaffective is undoubtedly an inheritable chronic psychiatric disease, whereby traumata can enhance schizophrenic and affective symptoms in one third of patients. Neural networks are described in the brainstem, hippocampus and ventral tegmental area and the mentioned neurotransmitter alterations are considered. Prophylactic treatment of schizoaffective patients consists of administering mostly second-generation antipsychotic drugs alone or in combination with mood-stabilizing drugs. The clinical importance of the antipsychotic drug clozapine for a pharmacotherapy of treatment-resistant forms of the disease is underlined.