Unusually persistent complainants.
BACKGROUND
Querulous paranoia may have disappeared from the psychiatric literature, but is it flourishing in modern complaints organisations and the courts?


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the unusually persistent complainants who lay waste to their own lives and place inordinate demands and stress on complaints organisations.


METHODS
Complaints officers completed questionnaires on both unusually persistent complainants and matched controls.


RESULTS
Persistent complainants (distinguished by their pursuit of vindication and retribution) consumed time and resources and resorted to both direct and veiled threats. Attempts to distinguish these people from a control group on the basis of the manner in which their claims were initially managed failed.


CONCLUSIONS
Persistent complainants' pursuit of vindication and retribution fits badly with complaints systems established to deliver reparation and compensation. These complainants damaged the financial and social fabric of their own lives and frightened those dealing with their claims. The study suggests methods of early detection and alternative management strategies.
Lester
Grant
G
Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Office of the Health Services Commissioner, Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Wilson
Beth
B
Griffin
Lynn
L
Mullen
Paul E
PE
D000378:Agonistic Behavior; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003142:Communication; D035881:Compensation and Redress; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D010260:Paranoid Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors