.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:20 Causes of Paranoid personality disorder
1:42 Symptoms of Paranoid personality disorder
2:30 Diagnosis of Paranoid personality disorder
3:02 Treatment of Paranoid personality disorder
Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental illness characterized by paranoid delusions, and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. People with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily insulted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. They are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other interpretations or evidence.[2]
They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.[3][verification needed] People with PPD may have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others' actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right.[4] Patients with this disorder can also have significant comorbidity with other personality disorders, such as schizotypal, schizoid, narcissistic, avoidant and borderline. A genetic contribution to paranoid traits and a possible genetic link between this personality disorder and schizophrenia exist. A large long-term Norwegian twin study found paranoid personality disorder to be modestly heritable and to share a portion of its genetic and environmental risk factors with the other cluster A personality disorders, schizoid and schizotypal.[5]
Psychosocial theories implicate projection of negative internal feelings and parental modeling.[1] Cognitive theorists believe the disorder to be a result of an underlying belief that other people are unfriendly in combination with a lack of self-awareness.[6] The World Health Organization's ICD-10 lists paranoid personality disorder under (F60.0). It is a requirement of ICD-10 that a diagnosis of any specific personality disorder also satisfies a set of general personality disorder criteria. It is also pointed out that for different cultures it may be necessary to develop specific sets of criteria with regard to social norms, rules and other obligations.[7]
PPD is characterized by at least three of the following symptoms:
excessive sensitivity to setbacks and rebuffs;
tendency to bear grudges persistently (i.e. refusal to forgive insults and injuries or slights);
suspiciousness and a pervasive tendency to distort experience by misconstruing the neutral or friendly actions of others as hostile or contemptuous;
a combative and tenacious sense of self-righteousness out of keeping with the actual situation;
recurrent suspicions, without justification, regarding sexual fidelity of spouse or sexual partner;
tendency to experience excessive self-aggrandizing, manifest in a persistent self-referential attitude;
preoccupation with unsubstantiated "conspiratorial" explanations of events both immediate to the patient and in the world at large.
Includes: expansive paranoid, fanatic, querulant and sensitive paranoid personality disorder.
Excludes: delusional disorder and schizophrenia.