What is schizoaffective disorder?  

Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic mental health condition. In schizoaffective disorder, people have symptoms of schizophrenia along with mood and behavior disorders. About 30% of cases of schizoaffective disorder start between ages 25 and 35, affecting women more commonly. Schizoaffective disorder is approximately one-third as common as schizophrenia. This condition affects about 0.3% of people throughout their lifetime.1

What is the difference between schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia?  

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder have similar symptoms and treatment. However, the main difference is that schizoaffective disorder includes a mood component, which can involve depression or mania, making it more severe than schizophrenia.2  

What is the difference between schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder?  

Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that causes abnormal changes in a person’s mood, energy, activity levels, and concentration. These changes can make it hard for someone experiencing this to carry out their day-to-day tasks. The main difference between bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder is that schizoaffective disorder includes both mood disorder symptoms and symptoms of psychotic disorders, whereas bipolar disorder only involves mood disorder symptoms. 

What types of schizoaffective disorders are there? 

There are two types: 

  • Bipolar type: Involves episodes of depression and mania. 
  • Depressive type: Involves only depressive episodes. 

Major depression means that you are experiencing depression symptoms such as feelings of hopelessness and lack of interest for two or more weeks. Mania is an abnormal extreme change in your mood or emotions, energy level, or activity level. 

What causes schizoaffective disorder?  

The exact causes remain unknown. Some factors may increase the chance of one developing this disorder, including:  

  • Family history 
  • Changes in brain chemistry 
  • Certain medications 

What are the signs and symptoms of schizoaffective disorder?3

  • Experiencing delusions. Delusions are when people strongly believe things that are not true, even when there’s proof that they’re wrong. 
  • Experiencing depressive symptoms
  • Having high or low unusual energy
  • Experiencing hallucinations. Hallucinations are when someone sees, hears, feels, tastes, or smells things that aren’t there.
  • Disorganized thinking
  • Having difficulty relating to others
  • Having thoughts of suicide and death
  • Experiencing prolonged, intense sadness lasting for two weeks or longer
  • Difficulty maintaining personal hygiene and grooming, including cleanliness and physical presentation

 Diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder 

Medical professionals look to see two symptoms to diagnose schizoaffective disorder. These include: 

  • A clear period of at least two weeks where the patient experiences delusions and/or hallucinations without mood symptoms. 
  • A significant mood episode of depression or mania throughout most of the illness. 

Both the symptoms of schizophrenia and mood disorder must be present to diagnose the patient with schizoaffective disorder. 

How can schizoaffective disorder be managed or treated?   

Schizoaffective disorder can be managed with medications, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).  

  • The types of medications that you may be treated with include: 
    • Antipsychotics 
    • Antidepressants 
    • Mood stabilizers 

You may also be treated with psychotherapy. Types of psychotherapy include: 

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
    • CBT is a mental and emotional treatment form. In CBT, a person is helped by a therapist in changing their behaviors and beliefs that lead to negative emotions. CBT aims to help change the thought processes and reactions that produce negative emotions to respond differently.4
  • Family or group therapy 
  • Individual therapy 
  • ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) 
    • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical procedure in which electrical currents are applied to the brain while you are put to sleep to change brain chemistry, leading to helping with the symptoms of mental health conditions.5

References:

  1.  Wy TJP, Saadabadi A. Schizoaffective Disorder. [Updated 2023 Mar 27]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541012/ 
  2. National Institute of Mental Health (US). Schizophrenia [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Mental Health; [updated 2023 May; cited 2023 Oct 12]. Available from: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia. 
  3. Cleveland Clinic medical professional. What Is Schizoaffective Disorder? [Internet]. Cleveland (OH): Cleveland Clinic [updated 2023 Oct 3; cited 2023 Oct 12]. Available from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21544-schizoaffective-disorder 
  4. NYU Langone Health. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Schizophrenia [Internet]. New York (NY): Patient Care at NYU Langone Health; [cited 2023 Oct 12]. Available from: https://nyulangone.org/conditions/schizophrenia/treatments/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-schizophrenia 
  5. Mayo Clinic. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) [Internet]. Mayo Clinic; 2018 Oct 12 [cited 2023 Oct 12]. Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/electroconvulsive-therapy/about/pac-20393894 

Written by:
Hayford Ansah
PharmD Candidate 2024
Temple University School of Pharmacy