Sex differences in the phenomenology of schizophrenic disorder

The content and structure of delusions were compared in 30 women and 30 age-matched men with Schizophrenic Disorder. Men showed an excess of homosexual persecutory delusions and of grandiose delusions involving social status and personal power. Women showed an excess of delusions of fertility and of jealousy, and were more often than men objects rather than subjects in their grandiose delusions. There was an excess of women who reported co-objects of persecution, and who personally knew their persecutors, nearly always men. These differences mirrored aspects of the social environment, especially with regard to sex-role stereotyping.