Paranoid symptoms in patients on a general hospital psychiatric unit. Implications for diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Paranoid symptoms were found in 40% of patients admitted to a university general hospital psychiatric unit during a ten-month period. Fifty-eight percent of this group had frank paranoid delusions, while the rest had ideas of reference or generalized suspiciousness. Only one half of those who had paranoid delusions had paranoid schizophrenia. A significant number had affective disorders or organic brain disorder. Ideas of reference and suspiciousness were found in many patients who were not psychotic. The therapeutic implications of these findings are reported in three patients who were inadequately treated for affective disorders because the presence of paranoid symptomatology had led to an incorrect diagnosis of schizophrenia.