The affective spectrum is a grouping of related psychiatric and medical disorders which may accompany bipolar, unipolar, and schizoaffective disorders at stastically higher rates than would normally be expected. These disorders are identified by a common positive response to the same types of pharmacologic treatments. They also aggregate strongly in families and may therefore share common heritable underlying physiologic anomalies.

Affective spectrum disorders include:

• Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Bipolar disorder
• Body dysmorphic disorder
• Bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders
• Cataplexy
• Dysthymia
• Fibromyalgia, including chronic fatigue syndrome
• General anxiety disorder
• Hypersexuality
• Impulse-control disorders
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Kleptomania
• Migraine
• Narcolepsy
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Panic disorder
• Posttraumatic stress disorder
• Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
• Social phobia
• Tourette’s syndrome

The following may also be part of the spectrum accompanying affective disorders.

• Autism
• Chronic pain
• Intermittent explosive disorder
• Pathological gambling
• Personality disorder
• Pyromania
• Substance abuse and addiction (includes alcoholism)
• Trichotillomania

Also, there are now studies linking heart disease and depression.

Please note that many of the terms above overlap. The generally accepted definition of these terms can be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

References

Hudson JI, Pope HG Jr. Am J Psychiatry. 1990 May:147(5):552-64. Affective spectrum disorder: does antidepressant response identify a family of disorders with a common pathophysiology? (PMID 2183630).

Hudson JI, Mangweth B, Pope HG Jr, De Col C, Hausmann A, Gutweniger S, Laird NM, Biebl W, Tsuang MT. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003 Feb;60(2):170-7. Family study of affective spectrum disorder. (PMID 12578434)

See Also

• Mood disorder
• Psychopathology