The latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V) defines both schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders as psychotic disorders. Receiving a psychotic disorder diagnosis can be heartbreaking and may present unique treatment challenges. By exploring the differences between Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders in regards to their negative symptoms, one can get a better understanding of the conditions as well as the challenges of diagnosis and treatment. Although these mental disorders have some similar aspects like the victim or patient experiencing psychosis, hallucinations and delusions, their primary differences involve the negative psychotic symptoms such as social withdrawal, speech disturbances, cognitive, memory and problem-solving difficulties.
For a clinician to differentiate schizophrenia from schizoaffective, they ought to understand the negative symptoms associated with both disorders. For instance, the negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia involves speech disturbances, flat effect, ahedonia, social withdrawal, cognitive, memory and problem-solving difficulties while schizoaffective must include the presence of simultaneous, yet separate, mood disorder (Moster et al,. 2016). Clinicians can use these mood disturbances like depressed moods to classify the disorder as either the depressive type or the bipolar type. Concerning depressive type disorders, the patient experiences depressive episodes but do not experience mania whereas in bipolar type disorders, the patient experiences maniac episodes and may also experience depressive episodes.
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Additionally, subtle differences in negative symptoms can help differentiate the two disorders. For instance, a person who has schizophrenia can become depressed or manic, but these mood-disordered symptoms are not generally a prominent or persistent part of the condition. Duration of moods episodes, duration of the psychotic symptoms and the disease, the relationship between mood symptoms and psychotic symptoms and differences in treatments are major differences a clinician can use to differentiate the disorders.
Reference
Moster, R., Siever, L. J., & Frangou, S. (2016). Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders. Mount Sinai Expert Guides: Psychiatry , 125-137.
