Dr. Janikula has years of experience working with patients with schizoaffective disorder.

Schizoaffective disorder is unique in that it typically has 3 distinct episodes of symptoms.    In other words, the symptoms change at different phases of the illness.   Schizoaffective disorder has clear episodes of the following:

• Mania, exactly like bipolar disorder type I
• Depression
• Psychosis without depression or mania often looking like schizophrenia

Some patients also have periods with no symptoms at all.  During this time patients feel perfectly fine and both the patient and doctor believe conventional medications are being effective, when in fact feeling well for a period of time is just part of the illness.

Other patients are always symptomatic and bounce between the three phases of symptoms listed above.

Homeopathy stimulates the body to heal.

Dr. Janikula’s approach with homeopathy involves stimulating the body to heal itself.  His comprehensive understanding of each phase of the illness, depression, mania, and psychosis is necessary to ensure continual improvement.  Patients and families find confidence when the condition is understood and improvement continues at each phase of the illness.

Commonly misdiagnosed.

Dr. Janikula finds schizoaffective disorder is the most frequently misdiagnosed and incorrectly medicated condition.  Dr. Janikula’s initial consultation is often 4-6 hours long.  This consultation involves taking the time to understand the symptoms reported by both the patient and family over the entire course of the illness.  Many doctors spend far too little time with patients and only get a picture of the present symptoms.  It takes more than a picture, it takes the movie of the entire history of the condition to truly understand what is going on.

Example 1: Misdiagnosis

• 24 year old male was misdiagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.  This diagnosis was made at a hospital because the patient would not talk. There were no signs of psychosis and the patient could not talk due to obsessions and compulsions from OCD.  Later an outpatient psychiatrist accepted the diagnosis and never seemed to question it. Antipsychotic medications were used for 3 years only making the patient worse and 50 lbs overweight.  Dr. Janikula spent 6 hours with the patient and family, and determined the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder was clearly wrong.  He made the diagnosis of OCD and the patient improved immediately with homeopathic care.  Dr. Janikula referred the patient to a new psychiatrist specializing in OCD and appropriate conventional management was used mainly with ERP therapy.  After 6 months of combined homeopathic and conventional treatment the patient is free of OCD symptoms.

Example 2: Misdiagnosis

• 25 year old male presented with severe depression and previous diagnosis of  bipolar disorder type 1.  During the 6 hour intake, Dr. Janikula suspected schizoaffective disorder because one of the four previous hospitalizations did not seem to be from mania, but rather psychosis.  The hospital records were very incomplete and the family only had partial memory of the events.  Over the course of 2 months the depression improved until gone with homeopathic care.  The patient started to have an episode of psychosis that was not mania and resembled schizophrenia.  Dr. Janikula was prepared for this 3rd type of episode and confirmed schizoaffective disorder.  The psychosis responded very well to homeopathy until gone. The patient is currently free from mental health symptoms.