Are There Different Types of Schizoprhrenia?
What makes schizophrenia different from some similar disorders in the spectrum is how long you've had symptoms and whether you also have signs of a mood disorder.
When you've had psychotic symptoms for at least a month but less than 6 months, doctors call it schizophreniform. Many people with this disorder go on to have schizophrenia. In other words, schizophreniform is often early schizophrenia.
But for about one-third of people, the symptoms just go away.
With schizoaffective disorder, you'll have a combination of psychotic symptoms along withdepression (major depressive disorder) or bipolar disorder. You could feel very down, or swing between super high-energy or highly irritable and very low, too.
If your mood episodes don't happen at the same time as your schizophrenia, or they don't last as long, then you don't have schizoaffective disorder. This is a rare, serious, lifelong illness.
In this article
Related Disorders
What makes schizophrenia different from some similar disorders in the spectrum is how long you've had symptoms and whether you also have signs of a mood disorder.
When you've had psychotic symptoms for at least a month but less than 6 months, doctors call it schizophreniform. Many people with this disorder go on to have schizophrenia. In other words, schizophreniform is often early schizophrenia.
But for about one-third of people, the symptoms just go away.
With schizoaffective disorder, you'll have a combination of psychotic symptoms along withdepression (major depressive disorder) or bipolar disorder. You could feel very down, or swing between super high-energy or highly irritable and very low, too.
If your mood episodes don't happen at the same time as your schizophrenia, or they don't last as long, then you don't have schizoaffective disorder. This is a rare, serious, lifelong illness.