Schizoaffective Disorder and Drug-Free Improvement-Reply
Stephen R. Marder, MD
Veterans Administration Medical Center Brentwood, CA 90073
Daniel P. Van Kammen, MD, PHD
Section on Neuropsychopharmacology Biological Psychiatry Branch National Institute of Mental Health Bethesda, MD 20014
John P. Docherty, MD
Yale Psychiatric Institute New Haven, CT 26504 JUDITH RAYNER
William E. Bunney, JR, MD
Section on Neuropsychopharmacology Biological Psychiatry Branch National Institute of Mental Health Bethesda, MD 20014
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1981;38(2):232-233.
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In Reply.—
Dr Bryant is quite correct in pointing out that the relationship between schizoaffective disorders by Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC)' and drug-free improvement after drug withdrawal comes very close to being statistically significant. It would be tempting to conclude that the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder discriminates between the two patient groups. However, we believe strongly that one should adhere to the internationally agreed on limits of statistical significance that define any probability larger than 5% (.1 > P >.05) as statistically not significant.
Drug-free improvers and nonimprovers differed in several measures, RDC criteria being among them. The diagnostic subcategory certainly appears to be a rather weak predictor since the majority of nonimprovers also were schizoaffective according to these criteria. The data suggest that the schizoaffective diagnosis is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for improvement after drug withdrawal. This should be qualified because the version of the RDC that was used
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