Introduction In the previous chapter we considered depressive disorders and we now turn to bipolar disorders, another group of conditions in which depressive episodes are prominent. In bipolar disorder, however, the course is marked by at least one episode of mania or hypomania. Kraepelin (1921) brought mania and depression together as manic depressive psychosis, because he believed...

IntroductionThe term paranoid can be applied to symptoms, syndromes, or personality types. Paranoid symptoms are overvalued ideas or delusions that are most commonly persecutory, but not always so (see Box 1.4, page 12). Paranoid syndromes are those in which paranoid delusions form a prominent part of a characteristic constellation of symptoms, such as pathological jealousy or erotomania. In...

IntroductionOf all the major psychiatric syndromes, schizophrenia is perhaps the most difficult to define and describe. This partly reflects the fact that, over the past century or more, widely divergent concepts have been held in different countries and by different people. Although there is now a greater consensus, substantialuncertainties remain. Indeed, schizophrenia remains the best...