Schizophrenia - paranoid type

Paranoid type schizophrenia is a mental illness that involves false beliefs of being persecuted or plotted against.

Symptoms

People with paranoid schizophrenia may have mistaken beliefs (delusions) that one or more people are plotting against them or their loved ones. It is difficult or impossible for others to convince them that they are not the target of a plot. People with this condition may spend a lot of time thinking about how to protect themselves from the person or people they believe are trying to harm them.

Other symptoms include:

  • Becoming socially isolated
  • Feeling tense, suspicious, guarded, and reserved
  • "Hearing things" (auditory hallucinations)

Paranoid schizophrenia usually does not involve the disorganized speech and behavior that is seen in other types of schizophrenia.

See: Schizophrenia for more information about schizophrenia and its treatment.

Alternative Names

Paranoid schizophrenia

References

Addington D, Bouchard RH, Goldberg J, Honer B, Malla A, Norman R, Tempier R. Clinical practice guidelines: treatment of schizophrenia. Can J Psychiatry. 2005;50:7s-57s.

International early psychosis association writing group. International clinical practice guidelines for early psychosis. Br J Psychiatry. 2005;187:s120-s124.

Update Date: 2/7/2012

Reviewed by: David B. Merrill, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

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