Schizoaffective is a psychotic disorder that has mood disorder components. The difference is with schizophrenia by itself there is no mood disorder that can be diagnosed. With schizoaffective disorder there are 2 types. There is the depressive type and the bipolar type. The depressive type has a poorer prognosis than the bipolar type. Schizophrenia is purely a psychotic disorder and while schizoaffective is also a psychotic disorder, people (according to most reports) are slightly better off with schizoaffective than schizophrenia. Also the difference between (if anyone wants to know) schizoaffective and bipolar is that with schizoaffective, there are at least 2 weeks of psychotic symptoms WITHOUT a mood problem. People with schizoaffective also needs a mood stabilizer (especially the bipolar type) rather than just an anti-psychotic.