Effectiveness of lithium prophylaxis in schizoaffective psychoses:application of a polydiagnostic approach

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Abstract
The effectiveness of Li prophylaxis was tested in a group of patients fulfilling the relatively broad International Classification of Diseases-9 definition of schizophrenic psychosis, schizoaffective type, and in each of the subgroups resulting from the application of the same patients of 4 different sets of diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective or cycloid psychoses. A comparison was made within the whole patient population between responders and nonresponders to treatment with respect to some clinical and biological variables. The mean number of morbid episodes and the mean total morbidity were significantly reduced during the treatment period as compared with a control period of the same length, in the whole patient population as well as in subjects meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria and Kendell''s criteria for schizoaffective disorder (with special regard to schizomanics) and Perris''s criteria for cycloid psychoses. No significant difference between the 2 periods was observed in patients diagnosed as schizoaffective. Clinical/historical variables (with special regard to those concerning the course of the illness and the family history of major psychoses) were the most reliable predictors of response. Biological variables did not discriminate between responders and nonresponders to prophylaxis.

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