Paranoid type schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia A type of schizophrenia distinguished by systematic delusions or auditory hallucinations related to one theme (Chapter 13). 

However, this improvement does not occur in all patients. It applies to a subgroup of schizophrenic patients characterized by higher cognitive abilities and less somatic and psychiatric symptoms. Interestingly, this differentiation is independent on the classical sub-types of schizophrenia (hebephrenic, paranoid, or schizoaffective). 

J, NAA/Cr ratio in left medial TL of patients subjects with family history of schizophrenia showed greater deficit than subjects without history J, NAA/Cr ratio in left medial TL of patients J, NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios in patients with disorganized and undifferentiated types of schizophrenia than with paranoid schizophrenia... 

Silverman (cf above. Part One, chapter 2) has noted two types of schizophrenia under the heading of reactive, which he calls essential and paranoid. His descriptions of the symptoms of these two types correspond well to the varieties of unusual ideation we experienced as the major confirmation of our success on the submolecular level in the two weeks following the experiment of March 5,1971. From that date, the normal configurations of both our personalities started a sudden and immediate migration toward these two forms of reactive schizophrenia. In the early morning hours of March 5, shortly after the completion of the vocal experiment outlined in chapter 6, in the space of scarcely more than an hour, one of us entered a progressively more detached state of essential... 

For a diagnosis of schizophrenia, these three phases must last more than six months and must not be due to a mood disorder. Three types of schizophrenia are delineated catatonic (prominent movement disorder), disorganized (severe thought disorganization), and paranoid (prominent paranoid delusions with mild disorganization of thinking). Undifferentiated and residual types are categories for those who do not fit the above three types but have a mix of features. 

According to Carpenter, Conley, and Buchanan (1998), stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines activate the dopaminergic system in the brain, which explains why the abuse of stimulants can induce a paranoid psychosis that mimics the positive symptoms representative of schizophrenia. In turn, if a person who is diagnosed with schizophrenia is given stimulants of this type, the psychosis may be exacerbated. It follows, therefore, that the typical antipsychotic medications act by blocking the dopamine receptors. 

Psychoses are a group of disorders in which patients have a distorted perception of reality and they include reactive psychosis, paranoid/delusional psychosis, some types of mania and schizophrenia. 

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