Paranoia

Paranoia
Classification and external resources
ICD-10 F20.0, F22.0, F22.8
ICD-9 295.3, 297.1, 297.2
MeSH D010259

Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.

Contents

History

The word paranoia comes from the Greek "παράνοια" (paranoia), "madness"[1] and that from "παρά" (para), "beside, by"[2] + "νόος" (noos), "mind"[3]. The term was used to describe a mental illness in which a delusional belief is the sole or most prominent feature. In original attempt at classifying different forms of mental illness, Kraepelin used the term pure paranoia to describe a condition where a delusion was present, but without any apparent deterioration in intellectual abilities and without any of the other features of dementia praecox, the condition later renamed "schizophrenia". Notably, in his definition, the belief does not have to be persecutory to be classified as paranoid, so any number of delusional beliefs can be classified as paranoia. For example, a person who has the sole delusional belief that he is an important religious figure would be classified by Kraepelin as having 'pure paranoia'. Even at the present time, a delusion need not be suspicious or fearful to be classified as paranoid. A person might be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic without delusions of persecution, simply because their delusions refer mainly to themselves, such as believing that they are a CIA agent or a famous member of royalty.

Use in psychiatry

In modern psychiatry, paranoia is diagnosed in the form of:[4]

See also

References

  1. παράνοια, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  2. παρά, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  3. νόος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  4. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) American Psychiatric Association (2000)

Further reading