User:Ctom1999/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Schizoaffective disorder

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose to assess the article because I find the subject of psychopathology to be quiet interesting. This article entry is important because it may serve as a source of information for health care professionals, patients, or those who are just looking to find out more about the disorder. After an initial scan, the write-up seemed to be well crafted on the basis of structure and organization. The content also appeared to be wholly relevant to the schizoaffective disorder.

Evaluate the article
Though this article is very well-written, I think there are some areas that can be further improved.


 * I think the lead could use some editing in order to be a bit less redundant and overly detailed. For example the sentence, "A mood disorder is not in the schizophrenic spectrum.", can be deleted as the preceding sentence, "...so the line between psychotic or not psychotic begins at a mood disorder, as being considered not psychotic, and schizoaffective disorder along with other disorders of the schizophrenia spectrum, as being considered psychotic", already explains this. I also think the paragraph describing the symptoms of the disorder may be a bit too descriptive, with this information being better saved for the "Signs and Symptoms" section. This can also be applied to the paragraph summarizing treatments and outcomes of SAD.
 * I'm not sure if the final line in the lead's first paragraph is relevant to the subject. It may need to be reworked or removed.
 * The paragraph summarizing causal factors and comorbidity in the lead section needs to have a citation.
 * Many of the sources listed are quiet dated (i.e. published in 2001, 2002, 2007, etc.). It may be helpful to see if more current literature exists on the subject.
 * The image of Karl Kahlbaum should probably have a more detailed description attached to it. Seeing as both images Emil Kraepelin have brief explanations attached to them, adding a explanatory caption to Kahlbaum's picture could aid in the article's uniformity.
 * In the "Signs and Symptoms" section, some of the information used to describe delusions does not seem relevant. This also stands out as no other symptoms are described with the same level of detail. The first sentence, "Delusions are false beliefs which are strongly held despite evidence to the contrary.", works well, but the two that follow can be deleted.
 * The sentence, "This is important to note when including that substance-induced psychosis should be ruled out when diagnosing patients so that patients are not misdiagnosed., in the "Causes" section may need a rework. Because of the reuse of words and phrases, the it reads somewhat awkwardly. Similarly in the "Diagnosis" section, "If the schizoaffective diagnosis is used less often, other diagnoses are likely to be used more often", can delete the second use of "more often" for better sentence flow.
 * There are many points throughout the article that are missing citations for a claim or information. Though some are denoted by a "citation needed" marker, I would recommend deleting some of these points until they can be properly sourced.
 * Though very informative, I am not sure if the "Problems with DSM-IV schizoaffective disorder" subsection (found in the "Diagnosis" section) is relevant. Because DSM-IV has been replaced by DSM-V, highlighting the former here seems unnecessary. Perhaps this information could be better suited in the "History" section of this article.
 * Though the "History" section is good as is, I think organizing the information into subsections may make for an easier read. For example, the early history of the disease that involved defining it's symptoms and coining its name could be dubbed "Conceptualization", or something of similar effect.
 * The "Epidemiology" section may need revision. Because the claim, "It is more common in women than men; however, this is because of the high concentration of women in the depressive subcategory, whereas the bipolar subtype has a roughly even gender distribution.", has no citation (though it denotes the need for one), I might consider removing it for now.