Persecutory delusion
This is the most common form of delusional disorder. In this form, the affected person fears they are being stalked, spied upon, obstructed, poisoned, conspired against or harassed by other individuals or an organization.
Paranoid delusion and delusions of grandeur are two examples of psychotic delusions. A person with psychosis will often believe an individual or organisation is making plans to hurt or kill them. This can lead to unusual behaviour.
The most common type of delusional disorder is the persecutory type — when someone believes others are out to harm them despite evidence to the contrary.
Delusional disorder is distinguished from schizophrenia by the presence of delusions without any of the other symptoms of psychosis (for example, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or disorganized behavior).
A person who has experienced past delusions and no longer does (for example, due to the use of antipsychotic medication), may realize that their former belief was false, and thereby have insight into the fact that they are prone to delusions.
Experiencing a delusion or delusions. Poor insight into irrationality of one's delusional belief(s) Believing that others are attempting to harm the person (persecutory type) Belief that others are in love with the person (erotomanic type)
The exact causes of delusional disorder are not well-understood. However, research suggests that various biological factors, including substance use, medical conditions, and neurological conditions, can cause delusions.
Delusions are common to several mental disorders and can be triggered by sleep disturbance and extreme stress, but they can also occur in physical conditions, including brain injury or tumor, drug addiction and alcoholism, and somatic illness.
Let the person know that you recognise the feelings that can be evoked by the delusions. For example, you could say: 'It must feel very frightening to think that there is a conspiracy against you. ' Respond to the underlying feelings and encourage discussion of these rather than the content of the delusion.
Types of delusions include persecutory, erotomanic , grandiose , jealous, somatic, and mixed/unspecific.
In exactly the same way, the delusional meaning is implicit in the primary delusional experience. Examples of primary delusions will help clarify Jaspers' meaning: “Suddenly things seem to mean something quite different. The patient sees people in uniform in the street; they are Spanish soldiers.
Bipolar delusions are a part of psychosis, which involves losing contact with reality. Bipolar disorder delusions occur in both manic and depressive mood episodes and are typical in individuals with bipolar disorder.
Delusional disorder is considered difficult to treat. Antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants and mood-stabilising medications are frequently used to treat this mental illness and there is growing interest in psychological therapies such as psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a means of treatment.
Each person with anxiety experiences it in a unique way with a different makeup of symptoms and worries. People with anxiety who experience delusions also have a large variety of delusions. Delusions are most common in severe forms of anxiety but can be present in milder cases as well.
The mean age of onset is 40 years and ranges from 18-90 years. A Spanish study conducted by de Portugal et al looked at medical records of 370 people diagnosed with delusional disorder and found that the mean age in this population was 55 years, with 56.5% of the patients being female.
A person with persecutory delusions may believe an individual or organisation is making plans to hurt or kill them. A person with grandiose delusions may believe they have power or authority. For example, they may think they're the president of a country or they have the power to bring people back from the dead.
People with psychosis typically experience delusions (false beliefs, for example, that people on television are sending them special messages or that others are trying to hurt them) and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that others do not, such as hearing voices telling them to do something or criticizing them).
Logorrhea is characterized by the constant need to talk. Occasionally, patients with logorrhea may produce speech with normal prosody and a slightly fast speech rate.