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Editorial
December 2013

Psychosis Within vs Outside of Major Mood Episodes: A Key Prognostic and Diagnostic Criterion

Author Affiliations
  • 1Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
  • 2Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
  • 3Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
JAMA Psychiatry. 2013;70(12):1263-1264. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.2808

No question in psychiatric nosology has attracted such consistent controversy over the past several generations as the setting of the boundary between schizophrenia and major mood disorders. Indeed, Kraepelin,1 the originator of this diagnostic distinction, was well aware of the difficulties of defining precisely this boundary. A closely related question has been whether there exists, between these 2 pivotal diagnostic entities, a third valid disorder that shares some clinical features with each: schizoaffective disorder (SAD).

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