Schizoaffective disorder is a mental health condition that contains the symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder. Schizophrenia affects how the world is perceived, while mood disorders affect feelings and behaviors. As a combination of the two types of disorders, schizoaffective disorder has both the characteristic hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia and the depressive feelings and low energy of some mood disorders. In some cases, people with schizoaffective disorder may also experience mania, or periods of high energy, euphoria, and increased irritability along with depressive episodes, resulting in a disorder reminiscent of bipolar disorder.
Schizoaffective disorder is very rare, with only around 0.3% of adults being diagnosed with it within their lifetimes. This could be due to how difficult the disorder is to diagnose, as many who could potentially have the disorder may receive a diagnosis for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia instead. Some potential causes of schizoaffective disorder include genetics and chemical changes in the brain. The use of psychedelics or hallucinogens may also induce schizoaffective disorder in those genetically predisposed to it.