[Hypochondriacal delusions in paraphrenias: a historiographical and clinical review]

Hypochondriacal delusions may eventually appear in chronic psychosis. Some authors have proposed the existence of a chronic delusional disease named Hypochondriacal Paraphrenia in which these delusions constitute its main feature. In the present article we discuss the nosological validity of the Hypochondriacal Paraphrenia and its independence from other subtypes of Paraphrenias. With this aim, an historical review of the position of the hypochondriacal symptomatology was performed form the original definitions of Lasègue and Griesinger to the description of the Hypochondriacal Paraphrenia by Karl Leonhard. Then, three cases of patients with the diagnosis of Hypochondriacal Paraphrenia are presented. We conclude that the Hypochondriacal Paraphrenia is a valid and useful nosological construct.