I’m diagnosed with Schizophrenic and Major Depressive Disorder, any reason they didn’t diagnose me as Schizo-affective? I’m probably gonna ask about it when I see my psychiatrist but I’d like to hear from you folks.
If you dont have manic episodes, I don’t think you can be sza. Sza is a combination of bipolar and sz.
Don’t take my word for it though, as I am sz, not sza.
I asked my pdoc if I’m sza because I have depression to, he said could say that but we really don’t label anymore. Sometimes he just is calling it all a thought disorder. Could just be him though. I’m curious. What your pdoc will say.
There is a depressive type.
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This happened to me during my first hospitalization until I was actually diagnosed with schizoaffective during my manic episode at my fourth hospitalization. There are a lot of reasons why they do this. Some doctors don’t agree with the schizoaffective label and prefer to think of the two diseases on a continuum. Some doctors respect the sza diagnosis but only really like to diagnose it if it’s bipolar type just because schizophrenia and depression together is so common and depression can be confused for negative symptoms so a lot of doctors forego the whole sza depressive type altogether.
Wouldn’t that make you unipolar, not bipolar?
Hypomania can happen, just not full blown mania.
Are you talking about me specifically? There are two types: bipolar and depressive. If you only have depressive type you would be unipolar, yes. But for me, I experience both mania and depression, so I am bipolar, hence my dx being the bipolar type.
Sorry for the confusing choice of words. No, I was talking about the original post. Seeing as sza is a combo of bipolar and sz, can it still be sza if the person in mind is unipolar and sz as a mix?
Sza depressive type means the person has psychosis with depressive bouts.
Having depression and sz at the same time is another situation.
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Yeah. SZA doesn’t inherently mean it’s bipolar. Someone can be unipolar and SZA.
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There are two types of schizoaffective. There is schizoaffective - depressive type, and schizoaffective - bipolar type. You don’t need to have bipolar disorder or bipolar symptoms to have schizoaffective disorder.
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That’s a bizarre diagnosis, yeah. Did you have one diagnosis before the other?
@Tee_O - it might be that your MDD symptoms are strong enough and distinct enough from your schizophrenia that they merited a separate diagnosis. Someone with SZA-depressive may have depressive symptoms but not enough to meet the criteria for MDD - the depressive symptoms may not last long enough, may not be disabling enough on their own.
I see… You may be right.
I’ve been feeling like both for as long as I can remember honestly. Maybe sz first because I remember seeing and hearing things as a kid but that may have been just a kid’s imagination. I know the depression hit when I was about 13 but I didn’t see a doctor about either until earlier this year.
Edit: I misread lol. I had the depression diagnosis first