Paranoia Assessment Questionnaire

Why: to determine if acute or chronic. If acute in nature must consider delirium or a new onset of psychiatric illness as a possible cause of delusion. Delirium is an acute confusional state due to many causes e.g. infection, drug intoxication, alcohol withdrawal, hypoxia (reduced oxygen levels in the blood), stroke or head injury. If the onset is chronic a diagnosis of a psychiatric illness or dementia may be more likely.

Why: e.g. general suspiciousness; fears and beliefs that they are being persecuted, taken advantage of, or wronged in some way; inability to trust or confide in others; hostility if it is perceived that others are prying or scheming against the person; reluctance to sign any sort of paper work; excessive concern about confidentiality; refusal to accept medication or other forms of treatment due to suspiciousness or lack of trust in the clinician's motives; history of repeated terminations of employment.

Why: Paranoia may be a personality trait characterized by social isolation, hypersensitivity and suspiciousness that may lie inside or outside the range of "normal" behavior. People are diverse and some people have more paranoid beliefs or beliefs in conspiracy theories than other people.

Why: e.g. physical illness, starting a different medication, abstaining from alcohol. Paranoid thinking is likely to be heightened by stress.

Why: Paranoid thinking may occur in association with brain injury.

Why: Paranoia may be one of the many difficult symptoms associated with a diagnosed mental disorder such as schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, paranoid delusional disorder, paranoid personality disorder or schizotypal personality disorder.

Why: e.g. dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, depression and prophyria.

Why: to assess chance of alcohol withdrawal, alcohol abuse or head injury.

Why: Abuse of stimulant or hallucinogenic drugs such as amphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, PCP may cause paranoid thinking and may also precipitate acute psychosis.

Why: Paranoia may be the presenting feature in dementing elderly people.

Why: include beliefs that centre around the theme that you are being deliberately wronged, or conspired against, or harmed by another person or agency. Such beliefs are often associated with schizophrenia.

Why: belief, without good reason, that your partner is unfaithful. May be associated with Delusional disorder.

Why: false sensory perception in which you see, hear, smell, sense or taste something that other people do not see, hear, smell or taste. Auditory hallucinations may occur with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, dementia or delirium, and their content tends to be related to the nature of the disorder. Visual hallucinations are most common with delirium.

Why: e.g. delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking - may suggest schizophrenia or bipolar disorder but these symptoms may also be present with delirium, dementia and severe depression.

Why: e.g. persecutory delusions (beliefs that centre around the theme that you are being deliberately wronged, or conspired against, or harmed by another person or agency) accompanied by auditory hallucinations (false sensory perception in which you hear something that other people do not hear).

Why: e.g. excessive sensitivity to humiliations and rebuffs; a tendency to misconstrue neutral or friendly actions of others as hostile and contemptuous. They may be prone to jealousy or excessive self importance. These people bear grudges and are unforgiving.

Why: e.g. impaired memory, impaired judgement and thinking, impaired verbal fluency and impaired ability to perform complex tasks. Personality may change, impulse control may be lost and personal care deteriorates. People with dementia may also have psychiatric symptoms such as delusions, paranoid ideas, hallucinations, mood disturbance and behavioral disturbance. Paranoia may be the presenting feature in dementing elderly people.

Why: e.g. impaired conscious level with onset over hours or days, disorientation in time and/or place, unusually quiet, drowsy, agitated, delusions, auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations.