Schizophrenia + Bipolar vs Schizoaffective Disorder

[deleted276313]

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Ok, I have been researching psychotic disorders since about February or March when my own personal psychotic issues started. I can name about every single psychotic disorder, and their DSM IV codes and requirements, although I'm still becoming slightly confused on the difference between something...

Schizoaffective disorder seems to be a mix of bipolar disorder and a mild or residual schizophrenia. What I wonder is why is there a diagnosis that mixes 2 separate spectrum disorders into 1. Why can't you just diagnose the person with mild bipolar disorder and mild schizohprenia?

The only thing that doesn't seem to overlap with a schizophrenic diagnosis is grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour, whereas there can be full mania, hypomania, mixed episodes, and major depressive states.

I personally was misdiagnosed with schizoaffective disorder (the only mood disorder I have is depression), but the diagnosis was taken back and I was told not to be labled by my own psychiatrist. Lol, in 1 meeting, she told me I could have sza and then told me I don't and to rule it out, and then told me I could have it again. She also cancels about 1/2 my appointments and has me over the max dose of Lexapro. Time for a new doctor >.> .

 

[billypilgrim37]

SDN cannot be giving medical advice, and we would encourage you to speak further with whichever psychiatrist and mental health provider you will feel comfortable with in the future.

In general, the field of psychiatry struggles to sometimes differentiate these diagnoses when symptoms are markedly overlapping. While on paper they are readily discernible, any given patient's exact history can be difficult to precisely elucidate. Sometimes, time will tell.

While a patient given these diagnoses often wants to know specifically what the diagnoses mean, the most important thing is that you get involved with a psychiatrist whom you trust and whom you feel you can work with on treatment. Every patient has a different experience, and a patient's experience is often more useful than the diagnosis assigned to them.

 

[whopper]

You asked questions that I rarely see asked, but has crossed my mind from time to time.

Why is it its own separate disorder when there are several people who are dx'd with more than one disorder--why not just put schizophrenia & a mood disorder?

I'm basing this on memory, and I haven't read this in a few months, but from memory, Schizoaffective does have a better prognosis than schizophrenia-which is ironic because if it simply were schizophrenia mixed with a mood disorder--you'd expect to see a worse outcome.

There is also via DSM criteria, several people who distinctly fall into this diagnostic criteria.

One thing that crossed my mind was the question if schizoaffective disorder really is just schizophrenia & a concurrent mood disorder, and the better prognosis was simply because it was confused by the raters as Bipolar with psychotic features or MDD w/ psychotic features. I actually did some looking into this on Pubmed & didn't really get anywhere on this quest.

The DSM V is currently working its way into handling Schizoaffective.

 

[pingouin]

Billy is correct, SDN is not to be used for medical advice. Closing this thread. If members want to generally and academically discuss diagnostic and treatment issues, feel free to start a new thread.