Summary

• Schizoaffective disorder has features of both schizophrenia and mood disorders.
• The lifetime prevalence is in the range of 0.32% to 1.1%.
• The depressive type of schizoaffective disorder is more common in older patients, whereas the bipolar type is more common in younger patients.
• Patients have a better prognosis than patients with schizophrenia but a worse prognosis than patients with mood disorder.
• Patients tend to have a non-deteriorating course and better response to mood stabiliser medications than patients with schizophrenia.
• Patients with schizoaffective disorder are a heterogeneous group with a variable predominance of schizophrenia and affective disorder symptoms.