This is the third in our series of posts on schizoaffective disorder. To briefly recap, the illness - if in fact it can actually be labeled as one - is virtually impossible to diagnose. There are two reasons: 

First, the DSM criteria is way too technical and stringent to guide clinicians in separating out the condition from either bipolar or schizophrenia. Second, clinicians do not have the time to obtain (nor are patients in a position to reveal) an accurate history of the ebbs and flows...