Nosological Position of Schizo-Affective Psychoses in France

Abstract

French clinicians unanimously reject the term ‘schizo-affective’ in favor of two specific French diagnostic categories: the ‘bouffees délirantes polymorphes, Magnan-type’ and the ‘dysthymic schizophrenias’. The present article presents the results of two recent nationwide investigations into French clinicians actual opinions and diagnostic practices in this field. It provides operational definitions based upon empirical diagnostic criteria and compares the two concepts with related concepts from other schools.

Cycloid Psychotic Disorder: Validation of the Concept by Means of a Follow-Up and a Family Study

“…Nevertheless, it must be specified that cy cloid psychotic disorder resembles in many ways acute schizoaffective psychoses as orig inally described by Kasanin [8] and, above all, closely corresponds to 'bouffée délirante' as outlined by French authors [17]. Furthermore, our data seem to suggest that most cases of cycloid psychosis are not variants of either schizophrenia or major af fective disorders, although further studies on larger patient samples are clearly required to settle this issue definitively.…”

Clinical course and outcome of cycloid psychotic disorder: a three‐year prospective study

“…Nevertheless, cycloid psychotic disorder resembles in many respects acute schizoaffective psychosis as originally described by Kasanin (17) and, above all, closely corresponds to bouffke dklirante as outlined by French authors (18)(19)(20). Nevertheless, cycloid psychotic disorder resembles in many respects acute schizoaffective psychosis as originally described by Kasanin (17) and, above all, closely corresponds to bouffke dklirante as outlined by French authors (18)(19)(20).…”

Long‐term clinical course of patients with acute polymorphic psychotic disorder without symptoms of schizophrenia

“…Historically, acute polymorphic psychoses with complete remission have been attributed to concepts such as cycloid psychosis, 1,2 bouffée délirante, 3 schizo-affective psychosis 4 and atypical psychoses as described by Mitsuda. 5 Although interest in such clinical pictures temporarily faded when diagnoses such as acute transient psychotic disorder were adopted in ICD-10, 6 the argument about how they are nosologically positioned has recently become active again.…”