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Delusional Disorders

  • Chapter
The Medical Basis of Psychiatry

Abstract

Delusional disorders are characterized by delusions in the absence of any other psychiatric illness that could account for the delusional thought processes. DSM-5 lists erotomanic, grandiose, jealous, persecutory, somatic, mixed, and unspecified subtypes. The prevalence of delusional disorders has been estimated to be 0.18 %. The available evidence does not suggest a shared predisposition with either schizophrenia or mood disorders, but very little is known about its neurobiology. The course of the illness is highly variable; some cases recover rapidly and completely but in others it runs a chronic course. Conditions to be excluded before diagnosing a delusional disorder include paranoid schizophrenia, psychotic mood disorder, dementia, drug-induced psychotic disorder, paranoid personality disorder, and hypochondriasis. Pimozide has been the preferred antipsychotic agent for delusional disorders, particularly the somatic subtype, but in recent years there has been a steady trend toward treating delusional disorders with second generation antipsychotic agents. Some therapists are now using cognitive-behavioral therapy in these patients as well.

This is a revised version of a previous chapter co-authored with Dr. R.R. Crowe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Psychiatrie et Neurosciences, Université Laval, Centre de Recherche de l’Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Québec City, Québec, QC, Canada

    Marc-André Roy M.D., FRCPC (Professeur Agrégé)

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  1. Marc-André Roy M.D., FRCPC
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Correspondence to Marc-André Roy M.D., FRCPC .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    S. Hossein Fatemi

  2. University of New Mexico School of Medicine Pasadena, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, California, California, USA

    Paula J. Clayton

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Roy, MA. (2016). Delusional Disorders. In: Fatemi, S., Clayton, P. (eds) The Medical Basis of Psychiatry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2528-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2528-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2527-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2528-5

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