Paranoid schizophrenia is a form of schizophrenia in which patients hear voices that others do not and/or experience feelings of persecution.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder marked by an inability to distinguish between real and unreal events. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most common, and often mildest, form of schizophrenia. With proper treatment, patients with paranoid schizophrenia may be better able to function in the workplace and live on their own.

Scientists do not fully understand what causes paranoid schizophrenia, but believe that it results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Paranoid schizophrenia tends to run in families, but environmental factors that affect the development of the brain of a fetus may play a role in the development of the illness.

The primary symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia include auditory hallucinations (hearing voices that others do not) and delusions of persecution (feelings of being persecuted or plotted against). Patients may also experience anxiety, anger, and aloofness, and will often be argumentative or difficult.

Paranoid schizophrenia is diagnosed by a physician when patients report hearing voices and/or feeling as though they are being persecuted, but do not have symptoms distinguished by other types of schizophrenia, such as “flat affect” (reduced expression of emotion) and disorganized thoughts and behavior.