COMPULSIVE QUERULOUSNESS - A DECREASING B EHAVIOR SYNDROME

Compulsive Querulousness (CQ) is a term for behaviour characterised by an exaggerated feeling of righteousness and is not a specific ingredi ent of any particular psychiatric illness. CQ was well represented in psychiatric literature until the year 1960 both in textbooks and in si ngle-case studies, but has disappeared from clinical psychiatric inter est in the last 30 years. In the first part of our study we present th e syndrome in its various facets (epidemiology, aetiology, categorisat ion, symptoms, therapy). In an epidemiological study we extracted in c hronological order all patients with compulsively querulous behaviour hospitalised in our clinic during the years 1922-1951 and 1964-1993. W e found that compulsively querulous behaviour has been more rarely dia gnosed in the last 30 years. Possible reasons for this are that CQ was used in more negative terms in former times than today and, consequen tly, there is a tendency today to avoid the term CQ even in cases of c learly querulous behaviour. In the second part we present, in a cross- sectional study, biographical and personality characteristics of all ' 'legal compulsively querulous persons'' hospitalised during 60 years - a characteristic subsection of persons with compulsively querulous be haviour. We found, among other facts, a predominance of male gender, o f medium or higher education and professional status, a trigger experi ence of injustice, and discuss their relevance in the formation of com pulsive querulous development.