Querulous paranoia in Chinese patients: a cultural paradox.

OBJECTIVE

There has been no reported case of querulous paranoia from the Asian population. A prospective study was undertaken to identify patients with querulous paranoia in an outpatient clinic.

METHOD: One thousand, five hundred and fifty-one new referrals to a university-affiliated psychiatric outpatient clinic in Hong Kong were screened for querulous paranoia during routine clinical work.

RESULTS

Three patients with querulous paranoia (0.19%) were identified during 1 year. The case histories of these three patients are reported.

CONCLUSION

Possible reasons for the low reporting rate are discussed and the importance of sociocultural traditions in the development and recognition of querulous paranoia is emphasised.