Persistent delusional disorder
Age group 35-55
Single or divorced
Duration 3 months or more
Predisposing factors:
• paranoid premorbid traits
• Stubborn
• immigrants
• deafness
• blindness
• educational disadvantage
• Non-bizarre systematised
delusions
• Foothold in reality, keeping with
cultural norms Auditory & visual
hallucinations not prominent
while olfactory & tactile
hallucinations may be prominent
• Personality remains intact
• Full recovery in 30%, severe
impairment in 20%
 Delusional disorder
Sub-types
Persecutory Erotomania
• Victim of a plot • Someone of higher status
• Everyday actions viewed as lover her
offensive
• Everyday encounters related
to affair
Hypochondriacal disorder
• delusional belief about bodily ill
health Dysmorphophobia
• Olfactory, dysmorphic, infestation • Presumed defect in
type
appearance
• Mirror checking &
Delusional jealousy assurance seeking
• Delusion of wife's infidelity
• Search for proof & confession
 Psychoses
Schizoaffective disorder
• Prevalence less than 1%
• More common in women
• At least one symptom of
schizophrenia and one of
affective disorder for at least
two weeks
• Family history suggestive of
affective disorders
• 20% deteriorating course
Brief psychotic episode
• Pre existing personality
disorder
• Female gender
• Younger age of onset
• Strong cultural influences on
presentation
• Acute onset
• Duration of less than 2
months
• Perplexity, confusion, rapid
shifts in affect, disorganized
behaviour