Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of case descriptions
- Preface
- Part I Delusional disorders and delusions: introductory aspects
- Part II Descriptive and clinical aspects of paranoia/delusional disorder
- Part III ‘Paranoid spectrum’ illnesses which should be included in the category of delusional disorder
- 7 Paraphrenia and paranoid schizophrenia
- 8 ‘Late’ paraphrenia and late onset schizophrenia
- 9 Delusional misidentification syndrome
- 10 Folie à deux: an accompaniment of illnesses with delusions
- Part IV Illnesses which are liable to be misdiagnosed as delusional disorders
- Part V Treatment of delusional disorder and overall conclusions
- Index
7 - Paraphrenia and paranoid schizophrenia
from Part III - ‘Paranoid spectrum’ illnesses which should be included in the category of delusional disorder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of case descriptions
- Preface
- Part I Delusional disorders and delusions: introductory aspects
- Part II Descriptive and clinical aspects of paranoia/delusional disorder
- Part III ‘Paranoid spectrum’ illnesses which should be included in the category of delusional disorder
- 7 Paraphrenia and paranoid schizophrenia
- 8 ‘Late’ paraphrenia and late onset schizophrenia
- 9 Delusional misidentification syndrome
- 10 Folie à deux: an accompaniment of illnesses with delusions
- Part IV Illnesses which are liable to be misdiagnosed as delusional disorders
- Part V Treatment of delusional disorder and overall conclusions
- Index
Summary
Paraphrenia
Introduction
Paraphrenia was introduced as a distinct condition by Emil Kraepelin (1921) early in the twentieth century and he described it as a functional psychotic disorder which was separate from both schizophrenia and paranoia. Paraphrenia suffered a similar fate to paranoia as the definition of schizophrenia later began to widen, and eventually most cases were probably diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia or, as now seems to be becoming more common, schizoaffective disorder. Paranoia, as we have seen, has re-emerged since DSMIIIR (1987) in recent years as a diagnosis in its own right, although re-named delusional disorder. Paraphrenia is currently excluded from the principal diagnostic classificatory systems, but still has a shadowy existence on the edge of our psychiatric nosology.
This chapter aims to demonstrate that paraphrenia is at the very least a sub-category of psychiatric illness whose diagnosis is of practical value, and that it may possibly even be a separate diagnostic entity. Of late, psychiatrists appear to have become increasingly unwilling to diagnose schizophrenia when there are significantly atypical features present but, as will be noted, there is often no satisfactory alternative diagnostic category for cases like this. In fact, some of these ‘atypical’ patients' illnesses accord well with the description of paraphrenia, particularly when the latter is modified in terms of modern concepts and practices (see later).
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- Information
- Delusional DisorderParanoia and Related Illnesses, pp. 147 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999