What's the difference?

Hello. I hope you are doing good and I was wondering if any of you could answer the following question for me:

What is the difference between major depressive disorder with psychotic features & schizoaffective disorder?

The reason why I ask involves my 12 year old daughter. I know none of you can dx her and I am not seeking that. I do wonder if her dx is incorrect however. She has been dx'ed with major depressive disorder (with psychotic features) after a week long stay at an inpatient mental health facility. Her issues came to light when she passed out multiple times in a short period of time while at school. Her teacher also told me that she admited to hallucinating at the time. Later at the ER she revealed that she had been experiencing auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations for approximately a year. She said she did not say anything because she thought no one would believe her.

So now 6 months later she has a dx and is still trying to find medication that actually works. She takes a combo of Risperdal and Zoloft, but her mood is still across the board ranging from what I would call super hyper to devastatingly depressed. She still experiences hallucinations. Lately she complains there are bugs crawling all over her. She sees a psychiatrist and a therapist regulary. We tried at one time to start weaning her off of the Risperdal and it was a disaster (her mood took a very dark, hostile turn). Her current dr is using the dx that she was given at inpatient facility.

I am not a doctor nor do I presume to think that I know more than they do, but I think she might have schizoaffective disorder and not major depressive disorser. What are the differences between the two? Also if you know is there different treatment for each disorder?

Thank you for any insight that you could give me.

Hi, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry to hear that you and your daughter are going through this. It's a rough trip of trial and error until you find the right medication, but keep strong, you will get there in time.

The difference between the two, is that with a depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms, the psychotic symptoms only come when she's depressed. With Schizoaffective disorder, the psychotic symptoms can come without the depression. That's pretty much the only difference when it comes to diagnosing the two.

Hope this helps. Stay strong.