Delusional disorder

Any one have any knowledge of it, or come across it before?

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I feel like I live it with my son every day but seriously will have to look it up. May I ask What is going on and why do you ask?

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Yes, it seems that its my sons diagnosis. No one has ever diagnosed schitzophrenia, I dont know of its less commom to diagnose a definate specific illness. For a year they said “early psychosis” now saying this.

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From what I’ve read, it’s exactly what it sounds like - delusions only with none of the other psychotic symptoms or negative symptoms.

I don’t know what your son is delusional about, but in hindsight, I think my husband had it.

For about 20 years, he was convinced I cheated on him, no matter what I did or didn’t do. Even without evidence, he was just sure it was true. In his early 40’s, it just kind of stopped as suddenly as it started.

I blamed it on everything from his friends & family not being in long-term relationships & cheating, to people cheating on him, to him cheating on them, to whatever else I could think of. But, after reading about delusional disorder, I think it fit him perfectly, especially since it seems to be textbook for one of the subtypes.

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Thats interesting slw.
Here its been thinking his phone was hacked, computer hacked, police watching him, us taking drugs, people saying things deliberate to annoy, tease him. Endless list.
He has had what he calls telepathy not voices he says but people can read minds

He doesnt disclose much to anyone other than us, maybe thats why they have been reluctant to really come up with a diagnosis.
. Hes been on 150mg depot paliperidone for 8 months now. A lot is better but still some traces of delusions.

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My son has the telepathy thing too - I think we’ve talked about this.

I’d keep an eye on it though because the diagnosis could change, and probably will.

The information is readily available on this site, but I didn’t know that voices don’t have to be internal.
And, my son still swears he doesn’t hear voices, but he does hear people say things they don’t actually say.
At first, I thought this was his paranoia/delusions/social anxiety kicking up, but it’s just the same as hearing voices in your head. I’m just mentioning it because my son did not present with visual or auditory hallucinations for years after he had his first psychotic break.

Either way, the paliperidone is what they’d give him for all of that. They’re still trying to get my son’s dosage right. He did great after the initial 234/156 dosing, but the 117 mg didn’t seem to be enough, so he’s moved up to 156 mg, and I honestly think he’ll eventually be on 234 mg/month if it’s going to work for him.

I really hope it does because he will not be compliant on oral meds - maybe not even if his psychosis was under control.

His diagnosis has changed over the years from major depression and anxiety, to major depression with psychosis, to psychotic NOS (not otherwise specified), to major mood disorders, back to psychotic NOS, and finally to paranoid schizophrenia. It could change again, and that’s fine - what doesn’t change is that he has psychosis.

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Yes we have spoke and again there are similarities.
Also my son says people have said things when 100% they havent. Not a lot but about 5 occasions so far.

Strange this but years ago, way before the psychosis he mentioned a couple of memories he had and at the time I thought it was odd as I really was sure he was wrong and doubted myself but knew deep down.
My son is on a community treatment order which he wants to end as he thinks its all fake etc. He wasnt compliant with oral meds.
I agree though he too had the non specified diagnosis in 2015 when he was in hospital first time.

Is it the paliperidone depot too that your son has? I just was under the impression my sons dose of 150mg per month was the max dose.

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If you haven’t already, I’d let them know about hearing people say things that they haven’t because auditory hallucinations would rule out delusional disorder unless it’s a secondary diagnosis - from what I read anyway.

Maybe the telekinesis is his way of describing what’s happening to them?

If he lacks insight, like my son does, he has all kinds of reasons for why he thinks things, etc.

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Yes I understand I have mentioned a couple of occasions that hes said people say stuff that they havent said.
He has answers that go like this “it just us” " i dont know why, it just us as thats what they do" never an explaination but always a conclusion?

Also on his info it states diagnosis of category lcd 10 f220.

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I’m in the US, so it’s called Invega Sustenna, but it’s paliperidone palmitate.

Here, the max dosage is 234 mg. I guess if they hit that point, the only other thing they can do is give it to him more often.

When he first started, we had two amazing weeks where he didn’t mention a single delusion. Usually, that’s most of what he talks about.

In the hospital, they gave him some oral Invega to make sure he would react, and not have a bad reaction, for 2/3 days. They gave him 234 mg on a Monday, 156 mg on a Friday & then let him come home plus 6 mg orally through that time… It was already like day and night, but there were a few delusional things going on. In about another week, they were gone, then they started coming back 2 weeks later, and we haven’t gotten him back there yet. He refused to take the pills when he came home, but when the delusions popped back up I got him to take some & they worked at first - then didn’t.

I’m a little worried because the 156 mg got him well enough to come home, but I’m giving him 12 mg orally too (supposed to stop after today) and he’s still pretty delusional.

He started a new treatment program (Intensive Community Treatment) yesterday and it will include a new psychiatrist that only sees people with his issues so they’ve assured me that she treats aggressively. It’ll still take a few months to adjust, but I’m cautiously hopeful.

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What are some of your sons delusions? Just trying to judge what its like for others?

At times now, most of the time we get to see our sin like what he was on track for, based on what his nature and personality were like when much younger before this hit us all. Its bizarre. Do you feel similar?

For years from about 19-24 we lived with a stranger as this took a hold of him. Now its like he sees us as people he knows again and cares for.

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I hope this new Doctor is good for your son.

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Early on, he had delusions about mind reading, time travel and government conspiracies.

They went away for the most part for a very long time. He just had lots of problems with anxiety & depression with breakthrough symptoms.

This past year, it’s changed. He lost his insight and started having more grandiose and bizarre delusions.

– he has a deal with some big corporations and has millions in the bank
– he wrote a bunch of old sitcoms that replay on tv and they owe him residuals
– he can go into the tv through the center pixel and control tv stations
– he can tell the future and predict when people will die
– he can make people faint over the phone
– he knows and talks to lots of famous people - he sees some around the neighborhood
– he’s jesus or santa clause or the easter bunny
– he’s invented something specific and they have one in the vatican
– he has lots of false memories about things he’s done, people he knows or has been in a relationship with

That’s just off the top of my head for the past several months - he’s always had an incredible imagination so his delusions are always changing.

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Wow, its absolutely amazing how his mind works, and to think we will never truly know or understand the brain at times.
I hope this new Dr helps you all.

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It took psychiatrists at least 3 months (in the UK) to give my daughter’s illness a label, after her first episode of hearing people talking about her. During that time we had no diagnosis, but her psychiatrists probably used terms like ‘delusional disorder’ and ‘auditory hallucinations’ when talking to us.

Way before she started hearing voices, they also said she may be autistic, have Aspergers, or be an elective mute. I don’t think they use the ‘p’ word until they’re absolutely sure, as it evokes such strong emotion.

During the 3 months diagnosis period, she had lots of follow up appointments to build a complete picture of her symptoms, and more than one psychiatrist was involved. They did eventually say that she has schizophrenia, which is a crushing blow as we all know. As you can imagine, it is of the utmost importance to get the diagnosis right so that the correct treatment can be given.

So has your son got any more appointments to assess his condition? It could be that you’ll see other symptoms develop over the coming weeks and months which will cause you to take him back to the psychiatrists, and the development of the illness will then be such that they can label his illness with a more familiar word. It seems silly to have to have a word, but of course, when applying for benefits or aid, you need a recognised term to put on the forms in the ‘What type of illness’ box.

As with everything on the internet, I don’t know how correct this site is:

but it does have a good definition of when somebody would be labelled with schizophrenia.

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Hi, he was first hospitalised involuntary in June 2015, he was adamant there was nothing wrong, he was discharged after three weeks, resulting in him ending back there involuntary again in march 2016 for 5 months.
He last saw the psychiatrist a month ago and had his CTO upheld just this week.
To be honest I don’t think he adheres to criteria of schizophrenia
We have seen several psychiatrists, doctors, social workers, CPN,s etc etc etc.

Well done Jane57, if sounds like you’re doing everything you can to support your son, and he is on medication that is hopefully knocking the edge off his delusional thoughts. Keep up the good work and stay strong.

I’ve read an article that suggests the medical profession is trying to move away from the word ‘schizophrenia’, partly because it’s used so incorrectly by the media and has so much stigma attached to it. I also hear people connecting schizophrenia with ‘split personality’ or ‘Jeckyll and Hyde’, where these terms sound much closer to ‘bipolar’ to me.

The same thing happened with ‘spastic’, and ‘retarded’, again both stigmatized and no longer widely used. They’ve been replaced by ‘Down’s’ and ‘learning difficulties’.

So maybe there’s a move to deconstruct the use of ‘schizophrenia’ into the use of terms that better describe the symptoms, hence ‘delusional disorder’, ‘psychoses’, ‘hearing voices’ etc.

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Thanks shop1uk and yes I think you are right, I think they really are in some ways moving away from the schizophrenia diagnosis, here in the uk anyway.
My gp says it, he thinks my son has it and yet the psychiatrist mentions delusional disorder, but yes I basically think the same.