Happy Girl

Hi Caren!

The affective spectrum is a grouping of related psychiatric and medical disorders which may accompany bipolar, unipolar, and schizoaffective disorders at statistically 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
General anxiety disorder
Hypersexuality
Impulse-control disorders
Kleptomania
Migraine[citation needed]
Major Depressive Disorder
Narcolepsy[citation needed]
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Panic disorder
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
Social phobia
The following may also be part of the spectrum accompanying affective disorders[citation needed].

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[citation needed].

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).


[edit] References
Hudson J.I., Pope H.G., Jr. (1990). "Affective spectrum disorder: does antidepressant response identify a family of disorders with a common pathophysiology?" Am Journal of Psychiatry. 147(5):552-64. (PMID 2183630).

Hudson J.I., Mangweth B., Pope H.G., Jr., De Col C., Hausmann A., Gutweniger S., Laird N.M., Biebl W., Tsuang M.T. (2003). "Family study of affective spectrum disorder". Arch Gen Psychiatry. 60(2):170-7. (PMID 12578434).

Hope this helps!
Jackie