I’ve so far been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features (Psychotic Depression) and I have all the features of Depressive-Type Schizoaffective Disorder from what I can tell of my research online and reading posts here on the site. So I’m wondering if they’re mutually exclusive, comorbid, degrees of variation and also what kinds of experiences people have had in going through the DDx process and medications that are helpful for both seemingly overlapping disorders. Going to ask my long-time psychiatrist in May but thought I’d see what you all think from experience.
BTW, 30 year old male with first onset psychosis in 2012 which was transitory and then relapsing into chronic psychosis by 2015/16. Currently on 300mg Seroquel and 15mg Abilify as well as Lexapro (depression), Klonopin (GAD with panic) and Keppra (encephalopathy from a suicide attempt and also mood balancing mechanism).
Also wondering if there are any borderline/schizo hybrids out there? I have BPD and have been symptomatic since age 13. Diagnosed age 24.
I don’t really have any advice- but I feel like it’d be interesting to know. I was theorized to have anxiety Psychosis… it’s kind of difficult to understand. I also feel like my symptoms more closely align with something else. What was your first episode like?
In order to be schizoaffective you would have to have had a manic episode I think. Schizophrenia is associated with depression but schizoaffective with bipolar. Have you had mania??
The difference is for psychotic depression the psychosis only happens when the person is depressed. With schizoaffective the person is psychotic despite their mood.
