Introduction. Research at international level is increasingly highlighting the frequency with which a psychopathological paranoid dimension is present both in the general population and in the psychiatric population. In this paper we have aimed to explor the presence of a paranoid dimension, in a sample of patients. Materials and methods. Our research sample consists of 87 patients, visiting for the first time the unit of our Service. With each patient we used the SCL-90R multidimensional scale. After the test we conducted an anamnestic research and diagnostic evaluation based on the criteria of the DSM-IV-TR. The data obtained was analysed using the SPSS software that was used to carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of the entire sample for each individual socio-demographic variable. We then evaluated the percentage of the sample which manifested a pathological paranoid dimension according the SCL-90R, and finally we measured eventual statistically significant correlations regarding the distribution of this dimension within the various categorial diagnoses and any association regarding the socio-demographic variables of the sample. Results. Out of the total sample (N=87) 13 patients who did not complete the SCL-90R test were excluded. 41 of the remaining 74 (55.4%), manifested values above the cuff-off in the "paranoid dimension" of the SCL-90R were excluded. Regarding the socio-demographic characteristics of this subgroup, a greater frequency of the feminine sex can be noted (60%). So far as civil status is concerned, single patients are more frequently affected than married patients, and the paranoid dimension is accentuated. However such dimension appeared more latent respect to others on the simptomatologic plan and therefore more difficult to characterize. Conclusions. The results obtained from the analysis of our sample seems to confirm the high frequency of the paranoid dimension and their transnosographicity. Also this dimension has turned out to be more latent than others on the plan of the manifest symptomatology and it needs in depth diagnostic investigation.