No, having psychosis outside of an episode does not mean you qualify for a schizoaffective diagnosis. I think that's a common misconception about the diagnosis. In fact, I think it is a bad idea to diagnose someone with schizoaffective just because they have psychosis outside of an episode, even if the psychosis is persistent or occurs more than a few times.

See, that's where I've been confused, I think. Thanks for the clarification.

Schizoaffective bipolar type *literally* implies that you have bipolar with schizophrenic symptoms. For example, flat affect, catatonia, word salad, warped thought processes, etc.. (Basically, there are certain behaviors/mannerisms that come packaged with disorders on the schizophrenic spectrum.) Also, in some cases, level of functioning is taken into consideration as well. Psychosis is just one symptom of schizophrenia.

Very clear - thank you. And as I understand it, a person doesn't have to "appear" a certain way (flat affect, word salad, etc.) to be dx'ed as schizoaffective.

For example, I know a woman who has the diagnosis. She's well medicated; I have not been with her when she's not medicated, true. But to just see her or speak with her, I don't think anyone would "know" that there's anything going on as far as psychosis. It was after I knew her quite well that she disclosed symptoms (hearing people's thoughts, for example, and paranoia).

I know personally that psychologists at one point thought I might have schizoaffective disorder because of my stubborn psychosis that never goes away no matter what. However, when I underwent specialized psychological testing, the psychologist said I didn't have enough of the schizophrenic type symptoms to qualify for such a schizoaffective diagnosis. For example, I have flat affect, flat vocal tone, social problems, isolation, etc., but the psychologist said I didn't 100% portray as someone who actually has schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like disorder. (Basically, I only somewhat portrayed and she wrote that down.)

People who do not have schizoaffective disorder but who have psychosis independent of mood episodes are supposed to be Dx'ed with bipolar w/ mood-incongruent psychotic features, using the shortened "with psychotic features" specifier. Since there is no such "bipolar 2 w/ psychotic features" label, I guess you're automatically Dx'ed with bipolar 1 even though you technically have bipolar 2 w/ psychotic features. I'm not sure why there is no such "bipolar 2 w/ psychotic features" label, but I don't think bipolar 2 has more than one diagnostic code to begin with.