Volume 40 · Number 2
FEBRUARY 2010
Overlaps between Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
By Robert M. Post, MD
There are multiple areas of overlap between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, suggesting that the two might relate to each other on a continuum. Such overlaps involve genetics, clinical phenomenology, course of illness, neurobiology, and psychopharmacology. I briefly review data in each of these realms pertinent to the general thesis that there is a continuum of severity/chronicity across the psychotic to affective disorders, such that schizophrenia is the most severe, and successively less severe are schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and unipolar disorder. Although clear distinctions can often be made among these categorical diagnoses, many patients exist at the cut-points and in between these categories.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert M. Post, MD, is with the Bipolar Collaborative Network, Bethesda, MD.
Address correspondence to: Robert M. Post, MD, 5415 W. Cedar Lane, Suite 201-B, Bethesda, MD 20814; fax: 301-530-8247; e-mail: robert.post@speakeasy.net.
Dr. Post has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships: Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Pfizer, and Vallidas: Consultant; and AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline: Member of Speakers’ Bureau.
doi: 10.3928/00485718-20100127-07
Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: No Dichotomy, a Continuum, or One Disease?
C. Ray Lake, MD, PhD
The Psychotic Continuum: Follow the Evidence, but How is it Interpreted?
Jan Fawcett, MD
Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder:No Dichotomy, A Continuum, or One Disease?
C. Ray Lake, MD, PhD
The Validity of Schizophrenia vs. Bipolar Disorder
C. Ray Lake, MD, PhD
Molecular Genetics and the Kraepelinian Dichotomy: One Disorder, Two Disorders, or Do We Need to Start Thinking Afresh?
Nick Craddock, MA, MD, MmedSci, PhD, FRCPsych;
Michael J. Owen
Psychotic Depression or Schizophrenia
Conrad M. Swartz, PhD, MD
Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective are Psychotic Mood Disorders
Daniel J. Aires, MD, JD;
Nathaniel G. Hurwitz, MD
The Continuum of Psychosis — 1986-2010
Timothy J. Crow, MBBS, PhD, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci
