| diagnosis = Psychiatric assessment
| differential =
| prevention =
| treatment =
| medication =
| prognosis = Depends on the individual, medication response, and therapeutic support available
| frequency = 0.3%
| deaths =
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia (psychosis) and a mood disorder, either bipolar disorder or depression. The main diagnostic criterion is the presence of psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks without prominent mood symptoms. Schizoaffective disorder can often be misdiagnosed when the correct diagnosis may be psychotic depression, bipolar I disorder, schizophreniform disorder, or schizophrenia. This is a problem as treatment and prognosis differ greatly for most of these diagnoses. Many people with schizoaffective disorder have other mental disorders, including anxiety disorders.
There are three forms of schizoaffective disorder: bipolar or manic type (marked by symptoms of schizophrenia and mania), depressive type (marked by symptoms of schizophrenia and depression), and mixed type (marked by symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, and mania). Auditory hallucinations are the most common type. The onset of symptoms usually begins in adolescence or young adulthood.
Genetics (researched in the field of genomics); problems with neural circuits; chronic early and chronic or short-term current environmental stress appear to be important causal factors. No single organic cause has been isolated, but extensive evidence exists for abnormalities in the metabolism of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), dopamine, and glutamic acid in people with schizophrenia, psychotic mood disorders, and schizoaffective disorder.
While a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder is rare (0.3% in the general population), it is considered a common diagnosis among psychiatric disorders. Diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder is based on DSM-5 criteria, which consist principally of the presence of symptoms of schizophrenia, mania, and depression, and the temporal relationships between them.
The main current treatment is antipsychotic medication combined with either mood stabilizers or antidepressants (or both). There is growing concern by some researchers that antidepressants may increase psychosis, mania, and long-term mood episode cycling in the disorder. When there is risk to self or others, usually early in treatment, psychiatric hospitalization may be necessary. Outcomes for people with DSM-5-diagnosed schizoaffective disorder depend on data from prospective cohort studies, which have not been completed. newer DSM-5 prevalence estimates are not yet available.
Signs and symptoms
Schizoaffective disorder is defined by mood disorder-free psychosis in the context of a long-term psychotic and mood disorder. Delusions are false beliefs which are strongly held despite evidence to the contrary.