Paraphrenia: paranoid states of late life. II. American research.

In Part I of this study, a review of the European literature on paraphrenia demonstrated that the disorder affects a significant number of older persons and is probably part of the schizophrenic spectrum. Part II presents the current research evidence and issues concerning paraphrenia, a disorder commonly misdiagnosed or overlooked in the United States. Recommendations are made for a rigorous investigation of this group of patients that American psychiatry has not studied adequately. Comparisons of paraphrenic and schizophrenic patients undoubtedly will provide new insights into both the process of schizophrenia and the process of aging.