[So-called small-scope delusions].

Abstract

Analysis of psychopathological traits of the paranoiac syndrome in 60 patients with late schizophrenia permitted to distinguish certan signs which can be allocated to the differentiation of late schizophrenia from other delusional psychoses in the elderly. The following differential signs were underlined: initial symptoms, such as rudimentary cenesthopathia, stable insomnia, etc., preceding the formation of delusions; appearance of episodic exacerbations in the form of short-time acute paranoiac states; a combination of paranoiac delusion with stable phasic affective disorders; unusual possession of delusional patients expressed in bizarre delusional behaviour, etc. Using this example as a model, the necessity of further profound and differentiated psychopathological studies of syndromes distinguished as predilective for old age is indicated.