An objective study of relationships and discontinuities between paranoid schizophrenia and Kretschmer's syndrome of sensitive delusions of reference.

The nosological status of Kretschmer's syndrome of sensitive delusions of reference (Sensitiver Beziehungswahn) has been a matter of discussion over many years. In an attempt to resolve the matter, a series of 147 consecutive patients who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic were reviewed. A group of 13 patients met specified criteria for Kretschmer's syndrome of sensitive delusions of reference, and these patients were compared with the remainder in a variety of ways. The patients with the syndrome of sensitive delusions of reference differed from the remainder in their antecedents (family history and premorbid personality), their EEG status, stresses at time of onset, and response to treatment. The evidence offered here points to the separateness of this syndrome from the other schizophrenic illnesses displayed by the patients reviewed.