We investigated the frequency of the various types and themes of schizophrenic delusion according to demographic and clinical variables in order to understand the process of delusion formation. Data were collected from 370 patients with definite
delusion selected from the 457 schizophrenic patients admitted to Seoul National Mental Hospital and the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Hanyang University Hospital during the month of October 1991. The study variables were: sex, age, education,
presence or absence of religious affiliation, residence, duration of illness and schizophrenic subtype.
With respect to delusion type, delusions of grandeur, persecution, being controlled and jealousy were found to be sensitively affected by the demographic and clinical variables. Other delusional themes such as those involving politics,
religion/supernatural, somaticism, family, friends, neighbors, love affairs, poisons, mass media and machines were significantly affected by the abovementioned variables.
Delusions involving a political theme were prevalent among the male patients, whereas delusions regarding love affairs and family were dominant among the females. The frequency of political delusions increased with age, whereas somatic delusions
decreased with age. Patients with a higher level of education had predominant grandiose, political, love affair, mass media and machine delusions, whereas those of lower education manifested a high frequency of delusions of jealousy. Delusions of
being
controlled, hypnotism and super powers were remarkable in those cases with a religious affiliation, and political delusions as well as delusions involving friends and neighbors were more prevalent among those without a religious affiliation.
Patients
from small-and medium-sized cities showed a higher frequency of political delusions. Delusions of persecution and poisoning were dominant in paranoid subtype schizophrenics and delusions of blood-relatedness were significant in the hebephrenic
subtypes.
All the above findings were discussed in terms of the culture of delusion formation.
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