Diagnostic delusions

Delusions in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: diagnostic issues.

Family studies of schizophrenia frequently include relatives of schizophrenia probands with diagnoses falling within the schizophrenia spectrum. As part of an ongoing genetic linkage study of schizophrenia, the authors examined case material from 50 relatives (of schizophrenia probands) who received a DSM-III-R diagnosis of a nonaffective psychotic disorder or schizotypal or paranoid personalit...

Insane Delusions

Study of delusions in Kenyan schizophrenic patients diagnosed using a set of research diagnostic criteria.

Eighty 'psychotic' Kenyan patients of African origin were screened using the New Haven Schizophrenic Index (NHSI). Fifty-one of these (64%) were found positive. Delusions were found to be significantly more common (P less than 0.001) in the NHSI positive group than in the negative group. Sex and age had no effect on the distribution of delusions in general but level of education did. These find...

Delusions of parasitosis.

The most common monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis encountered by a dermatologist is delusions of parasitosis. In this condition, patients have an "encapsulated" fixed, false belief that they are infested with parasites or have foreign objects extruding from their skin. The patient will often experience feelings of biting, crawling and stinging related to the delusion. Most patients do n...

Delusions in Young People

A delusion is usually decribed as an erroneous belief of the falseness of which its possessor cannot be persuaded of by reasoning nor by the evidence of his own senses, and which is contrary to the general belief of persons of his own race, age, standing and training. A person who believes that he can raise men from the dead or one who states that he is a canary or another who believes that he ...