Paranoid Personality Disorder

I heard an piece on Radio 4 a few weeks ago about JS Bach, in which a psychiatrist speculated that the composer may have suffered from Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD). This got me intrigued, so I looked up the Wiki definition of the disorder (here):

Quote:

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Individuals with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily feel slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid individuals are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.[1] They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.[2][verification needed] People with this particular disorder may or may not have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others' actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right WHO The World Health Organization's ICD-10 lists paranoid personality disorder as (F60.0) Paranoid personality disorder.[5] It is characterized by at least three of the following: excessive sensitivity to setbacks and rebuffs; tendency to bear grudges persistently, i.e. refusal to forgive insults and injuries or slights; suspiciousness and a pervasive tendency to distort experience by misconstruing the neutral or friendly actions of others as hostile or contemptuous; a combative and tenacious sense of personal rights out of keeping with the actual situation; recurrent suspicions, without justification, regarding sexual fidelity of spouse or sexual partner; tendency to experience excessive self-importance, manifest in a persistent self-referential attitude; preoccupation with unsubstantiated "conspiratorial" explanations of events both immediate to the patient and in the world at large.

The thing is, this immediately struck me as an almost perfect picture of my father in law. My wife agreed. We have had more and more trouble with his particularly difficult personality over the last few years, with some momentous incidents and notable bust ups along the way.



So, my questions:



Does anyone here have any experience of this dosorder, and any advice to offer? ("Bury him under the patio" is the default option, not advice, so let's take that one as read... :) )



Is there a difference between PPD and paranoia?



Could there be a link between the worsening of his symptoms (and thus behaviour), and his refusal to take the prescribed statins and thyroxin (for an underactive thyroid)? He won't take them because he thinks the doctor is in the pay of big drug companies, and only in it for the money. Would poor kidney function also potentially be a factor?



Mike

via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=267236&goto=newpost