Differential Diagnosis of Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder: the Role of Emotional Content of Memories

The exact diagnosis of schizophrenic disorder from schizoaffective disorder has always been a challenge for therapists due to the comorbidity of many signs and symptoms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia disorder from schizoaffective disorder, focusing on the emotional content of their memories.
The present study is a causal-comparative study on 23 male and female patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (without any comorbid diagnosis). Using a clinical interview, the emotional events and memories of their lives, as well as the amount of affective and emotional words used by these patients in expressing their memories, have been assessed. To determine the differences between the two groups, the data were analyzed by Chi-square test.
Results showed that men with schizophrenia had a significant difference in expressing the amount of emotional events in their lives, as well as in expressing affective and emotional words compared to schizoaffective men. But, this difference was not observed in schizophrenic and schizoaffective women.
The findings of this study suggest that differential diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder can be made with emphasis on the emotional content of memories, especially in men.