Ho risolto facendo cosi
Codice PHP:
$user_sql "SELECT * FROM paziente_docware WHERE username='"$_POST['username']."'";
        
$user_query = @mysql_query($user_sql);
                
$user_result = @mysql_fetch_array($user_query);
        
        if(@
mysql_num_rows($user_query) > 0)
        {
            echo 
"<script>";
                                    echo 
"alert('Nickname  presente nel database');";
                                    echo 
"</script>";
}  else {