Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are psychiatric conditions that have some common traits, but also key differences. Bipolar disorder causes shifts in mood, energy levels, and thinking. Schizophrenia causes a person to appear to lose touch with reality.
Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic mental health condition that involves symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder like major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder.
By definition, a person can't have bipolar disorder and schizophrenia at the same time. But a person can sure struggle for years with psychosis, odd behavior and mood swings and be hard to classify clearly into one diagnosis or the other, which sounds to be the case with your brother.
For years, they have known that the two share certain symptoms, and presumably, underlying genetic disturbances. Studies of families have shown that someone with an immediate family member with schizophrenia not only has about 10 times the normal risk of schizophrenia, but also an increased risk of bipolar disorder.
What is bipolar schizoaffective disorder? Schizoaffective disorder is a rarer type of mental illness. It's characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia and symptoms of a mood disorder. This includes mania or depression. The two types of schizoaffective disorder are bipolar and depressive.
Risk factors. Factors that increase the risk of developing schizoaffective disorder include: Having a close blood relative — such as a parent or sibling — who has schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Stressful events that may trigger symptoms.
Such overlaps occur in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, sometimes making it difficult to differentiate between the two. However, these conditions are distinct from one another, and they do not always co-occur. While bipolar disorder cannot develop into schizophrenia, it's possible to experience symptoms of both.
The key difference between schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia is the prominence of the mood disorder. With schizoaffective disorder, the mood disorder is front and center. With schizophrenia, it's not a dominant part of the disorder. Another difference is the psychotic symptoms that people experience.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness that can affect your thoughts, mood and behaviour. You may have symptoms of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. These symptoms may be mania, depression and psychosis. About 1 in 200 people develop schizoaffective disorder at some time during their life.