Paranoid disorders following war brain damage. Preliminary report.

Roughly 3,000 war veterans with moderate or severe brain injury have suffered from a psychiatric disturbance. Psychotic disorders are found in approximately 750 cases. The material of this preliminary report consists of the first 100 veterans with paranoid disorders. Delusional psychosis is the most common main diagnosis (28% of veterans), followed by major depression (21%), delirium (18%) and paranoid schizophrenia (14%). Paranoid schizophrenia and paranoid schizophreniform psychosis develop earlier (in 23% of cases within 1 year) than delusional psychosis (4%). Delusional psychosis lasted less than a year in 28% of the cases and more than 5 years in 40% of cases. The corresponding figures for paranoid schizophrenia and paranoid schizophreniform psychoses are 26 and 63%. Jealousy or fear of being sexually betrayed constitutes the most prominent individual content of delusions.