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
- Part IV Illnesses which are liable to be misdiagnosed as delusional disorders
- Part V Treatment of delusional disorder and overall conclusions
- 13 The treatment of delusional disorder
- 14 Conclusions
- Index
13 - The treatment of delusional disorder
from Part V - Treatment of delusional disorder and overall conclusions
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
- Part IV Illnesses which are liable to be misdiagnosed as delusional disorders
- Part V Treatment of delusional disorder and overall conclusions
- 13 The treatment of delusional disorder
- 14 Conclusions
- Index
Summary
In 1975, Riding and Munro reported on the successful treatment of five cases of monodelusional hypochondriacal psychosis (MHP) (now more often referred to as delusional disorder, somatic subtype), and in 1982 the present author followed this up with a report of a further 45 cases. Since then there has been an increasing number of communications regarding the successful treatment of the different subtypes of delusional disorder, unfortunately most of them on an anecdotal basis, but overall adding up to a refutation of the belief that delusional disorder is irremediable. Virtually all of these reports refer to psychopharmacological treatment.
Treatment of delusions in general
To be accurate, we rarely attempt to treat a delusion by itself but rather the illness of which it is a part, although there is a respectable psychological literature showing that delusions per se, as well as hallucinations, can be considerably modified by, for example, cognitive–behavioural therapy (Chadwick and Birchwood, 1994; Garety and Hemsley, 1994; Kingdon, Turkington and John, 1994). Psychotic disorders characterized by delusions are usually treated by neuroleptic medications or, in some cases, with electroconvulsive therapy and careful diagnosis is required to determine which treatments are most appropriate. We usually expect the delusions to improve as the underlying illness resolves although, as noted in Chapter 7 on paraphrenia, they can often be much more persistent than we realise.
In Chapter 2 we discussed illnesses associated with delusions.
- Type
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- Information
- Delusional DisorderParanoia and Related Illnesses, pp. 227 - 242Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999