Paranoid schizophrenia is the subject of research around the world. Gender differences in the course of schizophrenia were already observed in the 1980s. Compared to female patients, who tended to report fewer adverse effects of pharmacological treatment, men were found to suffer from earlier onset schizophrenia and exhibit a poorer response to administered medications, which thus contributed to an overall less favorable prognosis. Male patients were also demonstrated to suffer from a greater manifestation of negative symptoms, including not only affective bluntness, apathy, impaired activity or social isolation, but also disorientation, impaired concentration or memory deficits. This study results, conducted on a Polish population of patients with paranoid schizophrenia, confirm the earlier reports on the differences in the course of schizophrenia in men and women.