Schizoaffective bipolar disorder is difficult to diagnose but it must include both the mood swings typical of bipolar disorder and the psychotic symptoms often found in schizophrenia. It is easier to explain what it isn’t than to explain what it is.

Not Bipolar I Disorder

Schizoaffective bipolar disorder displays similarities to bipolar I disorder but has enough differences to meet the criteria of a distinct mental disorder. Bipolar I disorder is the most severe type of bipolar disorder. In its manic episodes, some symptoms of schizophrenia are seen such as delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, catatonia and others. To be diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar disorder, a patient must also have psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks during a phase of normalcy.

Schizoaffective bipolar disorder is a type of bipolar disorder and is believed to be the same causations and similar treatments and triggers.

Not Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective bipolar disorder has the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia in varying severity, but also has the manic-depressive mood swings of all types of bipolar disorder. Many people with schizoaffective bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed with either schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder.

Genetic factors contribute to the risk of developing schizoaffective bipolar disorder as they do with schizophrenia, but the latter disease has an environmental aspect not found in bipolar disorder.

Treatment

The treatment for schizoaffective bipolar disorder is mood stabilizers combined with antipsychotic medications and sometimes antidepressants. The medical treatment is similar to that of bipolar I disorder so that a confusion of these two diagnoses would not be a problem therapeutically. The treatment of schizophrenia, however, does not include mood stabilizers and confusing that diagnosis with schizoaffective bipolar disorder could be dangerous for the patient.

Suicide Danger
As with all forms of bipolar disorder and depression, schizoaffective bipolar disorder carries with it the danger of suicide. A survey taken in 1992 of people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder showed that 19% had either threatened or attempted suicide within the year.
For people with schizophrenia, a study showed that 28% had attempted suicide and 10 to 13% had succeeded. For people with bipolar disorder, about 15% commit suicide and between 25 to 50% attempt it at least once.
There are about 110,000 new cases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder combined in the United States. At even a 5% rate of successful suicide attempts, about 5,000 sufferers of schizophrenia and bipolar disease die of suicide every year in the United States.

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