The Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders category of the DSM-IV-TR includes disorders that have psychotic symptoms as a dominant part of their presentation (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 4th ed., rev. text, 2000). Disorders that fall under the Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders category include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder, shared psychotic disorder, brief psychotic disorder, psychotic disorder due to a general medical condition, psychotic disorder substance-induced and psychotic disorder not otherwise specified. Schizophrenia should be differentiated from Mood Disorders with Psychotic Features because people with a Mood Disorder with Psychotic Features express only psychotic symptoms during a mood disorder; while people with schizophrenia present psychotic characteristics during the prodromal, active and residual phases of their episodes (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Schizophrenia is also differentiated from schizoaffective disorder because someone with schizophrenia has mood symptoms that are brief compared to the entire duration of the disorder, or occur only during the residual or promordal phases, or do not meet all the criteria for an episode in mood. Furthermore, schizophrenia differs from schizophreniform because the symptoms of schizophreniform are present for one to six months; while people diagnosed with schizophrenia have had symptoms for a minimum of six months. Additionally, Brief Psychotic Disorder is diagnosed when symptoms are present for a day to a month. Although people with Delusional Disorder have delusions similar to people with Schizophre... at the heart of the paper... the disorders category contains several diagnoses that are primarily rooted in psychosis. There are many other disorders that might appear similar to a psychotic disorder; therefore, diagnosticians must carefully navigate the person's case to determine whether the psychosis is related to another disorder such as a Substance-Related Disorder or a Mood Disorder, or whether the primary focus of clinical attention is due to psychotic symptoms . References American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., rev. text). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. Liu-Seifert, A., Ascher-Svanum, H., Osuntokun, O., Jen, K. Y., & Gomez, J. C. (2011). Change in productivity level in the treatment of schizophrenia with olanzapine or other antipsychotics. Central Journal of Psychiatry BioMed, 11(87), 1-10.