DELUSIONAL DISORDER AND MOOD DISORDER - CAN THEY COEXIST

DSM III-R acknowledges that delusional disorder and mood disturbance c an coexist. The aim of the study is to analyze mood disturbances occur ring within a delusional disorder. An external validator, as the incre ased familial fisk of psychiatric disorder, is also added to clarify t he relationship between the two diagnostic areas. We found a high freq uency of mood disturbances in our patients (50.7%). We were able to id entify a proportion of delusional patients affected by a recurrent for m of mood disturbance (35.2%); in about 42% of these patients the onse t of the mood disturbance preceded the onset of the delusional disorde r by a considerable interval of time. Our hypothesis is that, in these cases, the observed mood disturbance could represent a codiagnosis of true mood disorder. This hypothesis is partly supported by familial d ata.