A patient is 28 years old. He has been suffering from mental disorder since he was 22. His current condition has changed acutely: for 3 days the patient has been refusing to leave his home. He claims that there is a "telepathy" occurring between him and other people, through which he receives "thoughts of strangers" and transmits his own thoughts for everyone to hear. He thinks his thoughts and actions are manipulated through this "telepathy". Make the preliminary diagnosis:

Answer options

1. Catatonic episode
2. Paranoid schizophrenia
3. Organic delirium
4. Depressive episode
5. Acute reaction to stress

Explanation

The main symptoms that indicate the correct diagnosis are delusional ideas (“there is a "telepathy" occurring between him and other people, through which he receives” thoughts of strangers” and transmits his own thoughts for everyone to hear”). The combination of delusions and inadequate behavior (the patient refused to leave the house for no apparent reason) is characteristic of the paranoid syndrome. In the condition of the task, there is information that a young patient suffers from a mental illness. The paranoid syndrome is the main manifestation of the paranoid form of schizophrenia. The only correct answer is paranoid schizophrenia. The remaining distractors do not meet the conditions of the problem. Psychiatry: [Textbook] V.L. Gavenko, V.M. Sinayko, G.A. Samardakova and others; reduction by V.L. Gavenko, – Kharkov: Region-inform, 2006. – 266 – 268 P.