Schizoaffective disorder is more likely to occur in women and symptoms begin manifesting at a young age. Therapy
Psychosocial treatments have been found to improve outcomes related to schizoaffective disorder. Supportive psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are both helpful. Intensive case management (ICM) has been shown to reduce hospitalizations, improve adherence to treatment, and improve social functioning. With ICM, clients are assigned a case manager responsible for coordination of care and assisting clients to access supports to address needs in multiple areas related to well-being, including housing. Psychiatric/psychosocial rehabilitation is often a component of schizoaffective disorder treatment. This rehabilitation method focuses on solving community integration problems such as obtaining and keeping housing and increasing involvement in positive social groups. It also focuses on improving and increasing activities of daily living; increasing daily healthy habits and decreasing unhealthy behaviors, thereby significantly improving quality of life. Psychiatric rehabilitation may also focus on vocational rehabilitation. Evidence suggests that cognition-based approaches may be able to improve work and social functioning.Psychiatric rehabilitation consists of eight main areas:

Psychiatric (symptom reduction and management)
Health and Medical (maintaining consistency of care)
Housing (safe environments)
Basic living skills (hygiene, meals [including increasing healthy food intake and reducing processed food intake], safety, planning and chores)
Social (relationships, family boundaries, communication and integration of client into the community)
Education and vocation (coping skills, motivation and suitable goals chosen by client)
Finance (personal budget)
Community and legal (resources)

Medication
Antipsychotic medication is usually required both for acute treatment and the prevention of relapse.
There are several theorized causations for the onset of Schizoaffective disorder, including, genetics, general brain function, like chemistry, and structure, and stress.Only after these relevant and known causes of psychosis have been ruled out can a psychiatric differential diagnosis be made. A mental health clinician will incorporate family history, observation of a psychotic persons behavior while the person is experiencing active symptoms, to begin a psychiatric differential diagnosis. Diagnosis also includes self-reported experiences, as well as behavioral abnormalities reported by family members, friends, or significant others. Mistakes in this stage include:

Not screening for dissociative disorders. Dissociative identity disorder and psychotic symptoms in schizoaffective disorder have considerable overlap, yet a different overall treatment approach. DSM-5 criteria
The most widely used criteria for diagnosing schizoaffective disorder are from the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5.The DSM-IV schizoaffective disorder definition was plagued by problems of being inconsistently (or unreliably) used on patients; when the diagnosis is made, it does not stay with most patients over time, and it has questionable diagnostic validity (that is, it does not describe a distinct disorder, nor predict any particular outcome). These problems have been slightly reduced (or "modestly improved") in the DSM-5 according to Carpenter.When psychotic symptoms are confined to an episode of mania or depression (with or without mixed features), the diagnosis is that of a “psychotic” mood disorder, namely either psychotic bipolar disorder or psychotic major depression.