Neuropsychological and neuroimaging underpinnings of schizoaffective disorder: a systematic review

Objectives The neurobiological basis and nosological status of schizoaffective disorder remains elusive and controversial. This study provides a systematic review of neurocognitive and neuroimaging findings in the disorder. Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted via PubMed, ScienceD...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica 2016-07, Vol.134 (1), p.16-30
Main Authors: Madre, M., Canales-Rodríguez, E. J., Ortiz-Gil, J., Murru, A., Torrent, C., Bramon, E., Perez, V., Orth, M., Brambilla, P., Vieta, E., Amann, B. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bipolar disorder
Brain Mapping - methods
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Gray Matter - diagnostic imaging
Gray Matter - pathology
Humans
Medical imaging
neurocognition
neuroimaging
Neuroimaging - methods
Neuropsychology
Psychiatry
Psychotic Disorders - diagnostic imaging
Psychotic Disorders - pathology
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
schizoaffective disorder
Schizophrenia
Systematic review
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Summary:Objectives The neurobiological basis and nosological status of schizoaffective disorder remains elusive and controversial. This study provides a systematic review of neurocognitive and neuroimaging findings in the disorder. Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted via PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Web of Knowledge (from 1949 to 31st March 2015) using the keyword ‘schizoaffective disorder’ and any of the following terms: ‘neuropsychology’, ‘cognition’, ‘structural neuroimaging’, ‘functional neuroimaging’, ‘multimodal’, ‘DTI’ and ‘VBM’. Only studies that explicitly examined a well defined sample, or subsample, of patients with schizoaffective disorder were included. Results Twenty‐two of 43 neuropsychological and 19 of 51 neuroimaging articles fulfilled inclusion criteria. We found a general trend towards schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder being related to worse cognitive performance than bipolar disorder. Grey matter volume loss in schizoaffective disorder is also more comparable to schizophrenia than to bipolar disorder which seems consistent across further neuroimaging techniques. Conclusions Neurocognitive and neuroimaging abnormalities in schizoaffective disorder resemble more schizophrenia than bipolar disorder. This is suggestive for schizoaffective disorder being a subtype of schizophrenia or being part of the continuum spectrum model of psychosis, with schizoaffective disorder being more skewed towards schizophrenia than bipolar disorder.
ISSN:0001-690X
1600-0447
DOI:10.1111/acps.12564