Long-term treatment of schizoaffective disorder: review and recommendations.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of long-term treatment studies in schizoaffective disorder (SAD) and to draw conclusions for clinical decision-making.

METHOD: Literature was identified by searches in Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register as well as a hand-search of handbook and journal articles. Studies were considered relevant if they reported on trials of at least 6 months duration and if they presented data for the SAD patients in particular.

RESULTS: Thirty-nine studies met the criteria and 18 used modern diagnostic criteria, i. e., RDC, DSM-III-R, -IV, or ICD-10. The studies focused on lithium, anticonvulsants, and antipsychotics. The scientific evidence for prophylactic efficacy of the different substances is poor. Nevertheless, the data encourage the use of lithium and carbamazepine in primarily affective patients and clozapine in primarily schizophrenic patients and possibly in mainly affective patients as well.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a considerable need for prospective and controlled studies on the long-term treatment of SAD. However, it seems to be useful to subtype the disorder of the patients into primarily affective vs. schizophrenic schizoaffective disorder and schizodepressive vs. schizobipolar and to treat accordingly.