A Question About Schizoaffective Disorder?

Question

In the field of psychology it is a relatively new term given to someone who suffers from multiple disorders, usually a combination of schizophrenia and other mental conditions, like mood disorders.

Would or could bipolar disorders (or even something like Asperger’s Syndrome) be included in this newer group association? Or does bipolar disorder still stand alone as a specifically defined mental condition?

If so, how many different symptoms can be classified under the Schizoaffective Disorder label?

I ask because I know of a friend of a friend who has been diagnosed differently by several different doctors and the last diagnosagefrom a VA psychologist, was that he suffered from Schizoaffective Disorder. Before this he was diagnosed as bipolar by a county psychologist.

Answer 1

You can actually have one of two types of Schizoaffective Disorder, Depressive Type or Bipolar Type.

You can also have Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features.

It is a fine line and difficult to diagnose, so I can understand why each doctor would diagnose him differently.

Answer 2

There's two types of schizoaffective: bipolar subtype (mania and depression) and depressed (depression only). So, no, you can't be diagnosed with schizoaffective and mood disorders simultaneously, as one's part of the other. The difference between schizoaffective psychosis and bipolar psychosis is that in the latter, psychosis is only present during mood episodes (excluding hypomania), and isn't always, whereas in schizoaffective disorder patients are psychotic both in and between affective episodes. Importantly, there is an exacerbation of psychotic symptoms during schizoaffective mood episodes, so someone with mild tangential speech and ideas of reference may have profound loosening of associations and full-blown delusions of reference during, say, a depressive episode, whether or not typical depressive delusions (e.g., sin, guilt, persecution) are present, presenting a mood-incongruent picture. Which is why the presence of mood-incongruent delusions argues strongly for schizoaffective disorder vs. major depression or bipolar (although exceptions do occur).

Answer 3

Psychology is not a science...it's a guess. Check out a DSMR sometime. They would call it a science but....all they do is guess (oh. and label).