The pathology of deafness in the paranoid and affective psychoses of later life

Abstract

Using enlarged samples, this study investigates the results of a previous enquiry which indicated that, compared with a control group of affectives, a higher proportion of patients suffering from paranoid psychoses had bilateral conductive deafness. In the original sample 21 paranoid and 8 affective patients were judged to have been hard of hearing prior to the onset of their psychosis (Group ‘A’). Six additional deaf paranoid and 10 deaf affective patients (Group ‘B’) were identified by the same method as before, providing a total of 27 deaf paranoid and 18 deaf affective patients who were available for audiometry and otological examination. The results confirm that there is a significant association between paranoid illness and bilateral conductive deafness which has an earlier age of onset, longer duration and greater severity than the forms of sensorineural deafness found in the affective group. It is suggested that factors related to long duration and severity of deafness are of greater importance in the aetiology of paranoid psychosis than the quality of hearing loss; and the implications for treatment and prevention are discussed.