Nosologische Aspekte der paranoiden Psychosen

Abstract

The author stresses the lack of nosological entities in psychiatry, and also the necessity of a classification system. Paranoid symptoms are found in most types of psychoses, both functional and organic psychoses. Among the functional psychoses the schizophrenias often have a paranoid picture, and paranoid traits may be found even in the affective psychoses. The Scandinavian concept of <i>reactive psychoses</i> is presented, including reactive psychoses of paranoiac, paranoid and schizophreniform type. Finally, the author presents his own personal follow-up study of paranoid psychoses after an observation time of 5–18 years. This study demonstrates 81 % cured, of the patients with the discharge diagnosis of reactive psychoses, as against 23 % cured, of the patients with the discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia. The author suggests a continuum of the paranoid psychoses from the schizophrenias via the schizophreniform and paranoid reactive psychoses to the more affective psychoses with slight tendency to paranoid symptomatology.