paraphrenia

paraphrenia

[-frē′nē·ə]

a psychiatric condition that is primary to an affective illness or organic mental disorder. Gross disturbances of affect, volition, and function, which are characteristic of schizophrenia, are not prominent, but paranoid delusions and hallucinations are always present.

paraphrenia

A well-organized system of paranoid delusions affecting elderly people. The personality is relatively unaffected and there is little in the way of mood disorder. Hallucinations may or may not be present. Many psychiatrists, notably in the USA, make no distinction between paraphrenia and late-onset paranoid SCHIZOPHRENIA.