Paranoid episodes in manic-depressive psychoses

The author reports on 7 patients with a primary diagnosis of manic- depressive psychosis who had brief but well-defined episodes of paranoid symptomatology. These episodes apparently represent alterations of psychic defense structure during the dynamic flow of the psychosis toward recovery. In manic-depressive psychosis, with its genetic and physiologic components, the paranoid episodes reaffirm the unitary nature of humans, in whom heredity and physical and psychological factors inextricably interact.