RESUMEN

Capgras syndrome (CS) is a type of delusional misidentification syndrome where an individual is under the impression that a person they know has been switched with an identical imposter. One theory for the development of CS is a disturbance among the frontal, limbic, and temporal areas, which creates an alteration in an individual's ability to recognize a person's face and provoke a response emotionally. The primary risk factors for the development of CS include having a neurological disorder and a diagnosis of schizophrenia. We present a case of a 39-year-old male with a past medical history of traumatic brain injury and familial history of schizophrenia who presented to the Emergency Department with paranoia and the belief that his father had been switched with an imposter. After ruling out organic causes, he was stabilized on olanzapine before discharge to outpatient follow-up. This case highlights the importance of prompt recognition of the symptomatology associated with CS and treatment with olanzapine for a favorable outcome.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to analyse the coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes in a clinical sample. METHODS: Over one year, a sample of six patients presenting two or more types of delusional misidentification syndromes was selected. All these patients were admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit of a Spanish hospital. RESULTS: Despite the different diagnoses, the patients included presented different types of delusional misidentification syndromes, both hyperidentification and hypoidentification. Antipsychotic treatment was not very effective against these delusional misidentification syndromes. CONCLUSIONS: The coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes indicates that the aetiopathogenesis of the different types is similar. It is a field with important clinical implications, due to the poor response to treatment, as well as the possible medico-legal implications.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la coexistencia de varios síndromes de falsos reconocimientos delirantes en una muestra clínica. Métodos: A lo largo de 1 ano, se seleccionó una muestra de 6 pacientes con 2 o más tipos de falsos reconocimientos delirantes durante el mismo episodio. Todos ellos se encontraban hospitalizados en la unidad de hospitalización psiquiátrica en un hospital de España. Resultados: A pesar de los distintos diagnósticos, los pacientes incluidos presentaban diferentes tipos de falsos reconocimientos delirantes, tanto de hiperidentificación como de hipoidentificación. El tratamiento antipsicótico fue escasamente eficaz contra estos síndromes de falsos reconocimientos delirantes. Conclusiones: La coexistencia de varios síndromes de falsos reconocimientos delirantes indica que la etiopatogenia de los distintos tipos es similar. Se trata de un campo con importantes implicaciones tanto clínicas, por la baja respuesta al tratamiento, como las posibles médico-legales.

Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes in a clinical sample. Methods: Over one year, a sample of six patients presenting two or more types of delusional misidentification syndromes was selected. All these patients were admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit of a Spanish hospital. Results: Despite the different diagnoses, the patients included presented different types of delusional misidentification syndromes, both hyperidentification and hypoidentification. Antipsychotic treatment was not very effective against these delusional misidentification syndromes Conclusions: The coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes indicates that the aetiopathogenesis of the different types is similar. It is a field with important clinical implications, due to the poor response to treatment, as well as the possible medico-legal implications.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the clinical features of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and analyzed the differences in neurologic syndromes, including mirror and TV signs, between different groups. METHODS: Patients with AD and DLB (325 and 115, respectively) hospitalized in our institution were enrolled. We compared psychiatric symptoms and neurologic syndromes between the DLB and AD groups and within each subgroup, including the mild-moderate and severe subgroups. RESULTS: The prevalence rates of visual hallucination, parkinsonism, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, depression, delusion, and the Pisa sign were significantly higher in the DLB group than in the AD group. Furthermore, within the mild-moderate subgroup, the mirror sign and Pisa sign prevalence rates were significantly higher in the DLB group than in the AD group. In the severe subgroup, no significant difference was found in any neurologic sign between the DLB and AD groups. CONCLUSION: Mirror and TV signs are rare and often disregarded because they are not usually invoked during routine inpatient or outpatient interviews. According to our findings, the mirror sign is uncommon in early AD patients but common in early DLB patients and should receive increased attention.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Delusional companion syndrome, an uncommon subtype of delusional misidentification syndrome, has no prior reported cases in patients with primary psychotic disorders. We report a case of delusional companion syndrome in the absence of any organic brain disease, stroke, or severe brain injury, in a young female with schizophrenia. The patient is a 29-year-old G3P3 female, with a history of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, who, after recently losing custody of her children, presented to the pediatric emergency department for evaluation of her baby doll, which she believed to be her child because the doll wasn't eating or moving well. She became acutely agitated when providers declined to insert an IV line to hydrate the doll and required emergency treatment orders to de-escalate. The patient was admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit and treated with oral aripiprazole 10 mg, before transitioning to her previous treatment of aripiprazole lauroxil at an increased dose of 882 mg monthly. By the end of admission, the patient grasped that the doll was a toy that had never been alive. This case demonstrates how delusional companion syndrome can occur in young patients with primary psychotic disorders, without a causative neurological insult, and can be treated with antipsychotics. More studies are necessary to further explore the relationship between primary psychotic disorders and delusional companion syndrome.

RESUMEN

Delusional misidentification syndromes in psychiatric disorders might result in dangerous behavior leading sometimes to homicide. An early diagnosis and thorough follow up is important to avoid such consequences.

RESUMEN

Serial criminality, although rare, has always aroused the interest of researchers in criminology, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology. We report the case of a patient, suffering from a chronic psychotic disorder, having committed several murders over a period of 9 years, underpinned by a delirium of misidentification of Frigoli syndrome.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Phantom boarder symptom (PBS) is classified as a delusional misidentification syndrome, and is often encountered in elderly individuals who have mild or major neurocognitive disorders. With the ageing of society, patients presenting with PBS are increasing in Japan. This retrospective study was conducted to examine the aetiology and identify significant predictors of PBS. METHODS: The records of 511 consecutive patients who visited our hospital with suspicion of dementia between September 2013 and September 2019 were retrospectively examined. From those, 16 patients who presented with PBS (1 male, 15 females; mean age 79.9 ± 4 years) were selected and case features were investigated in detail. Clinical symptoms, background factors, and final diagnoses were noted. PBS was most common in patients affected by dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Predictive factors were evaluated using multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The final diagnosis of the 16 subjects was DLB in 7, Alzheimer's disease in 3, delusional disorder in 3, unspecified dementia in 2, and vascular dementia in 1. Analysis limited to DLB cases showed that a low Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and living alone were related to higher risk for PBS. CONCLUSION: Various types of dementia, especially DLB, as well as cognitive impairment and living alone were found to be strong predictors of PBS.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

An 84-year-old woman who had been diagnosed as having dementia with Lewy body (DLB) upon initial examination exhibited cognitive impairments and person delusional misidentification (DMS): she transiently claimed that her spouse was a stranger. She was re-examined at the age of 89 years; her frequency of speech and activities of daily living had both decreased, leading to verbal communication difficulties complicated by sensory aphasia, and brain diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed cortical hyperintensities in some areas of both hemispheres. About 4 months later, the DW high-intensity areas were observed to have expanded into diffuse cortical areas. While the clinical features of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) (myoclonus; ataxia; parkinsonism; rapidly progressive cognitive impairments; periodic sharp discharges on electroencephalograms) were not observed, a genetic analysis of the prion protein (PRNP) gene, which was performed because of a family history of dementia, revealed a V180I mutation (heterozygosis: valine/isoleucine) suggesting genetic CJD (g-CJD). Her activity progressively decreased, reaching akinetic mutism about 11 months after the re-examination. Finally, she suffered from severe bedsores and died from aspiration pneumonia at the age of 90 years. The present report describes the first case of person DMS as an initial neuropsychiatric symptom for V180I g-CJD; the typical long-term clinical symptoms of CJD were not observed in this patient. The inclusion of person DMS as an initial clinical symptom and the presence of expansive cortical hyperintensity areas may be useful for clinicians attempting to diagnosis V180I g-CJD in patients with elusive symptoms.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Background: Culture can affect psychiatric disorders. Clinical Lycanthropy is a rare syndrome, described since Antiquity, within which the patient has the delusional belief of turning into a wolf. Little is known on its clinical or therapeutic correlates. Methods: We conducted a systematic review (PRISMA) on PubMed and Google Scholar, until January 2021. Case reports, data on neurobiological hypotheses, and cultural aspects were included. Language was not restricted to English. Results: Forty-three cases of clinical lycanthropy and kynanthropy (delusion of dog transformation) were identified. Associated diagnoses were: schizophrenia, psychotic depression, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders. Antipsychotic medication may be an efficient treatment for this rare transnosographic syndrome. In case of depression or mania, the treatment included antidepressants or mood regulators. The neuroscientific hypotheses include the conception of clinical lycanthropy as a cenesthopathy, as a delusional misidentification of the self-syndrome, as impairments of sensory integration, as impairments of the belief evaluation system, and right hemisphere anomalies. Interestingly, there is a clinical overlap between clinical lycanthropy and other delusional misidentification syndromes. Clinical lycanthropy may be a culture-bound syndrome that happens in the context of Western cultures, myths, and stories on werewolves, and today's exposure to these narratives on cultural media such as the internet and the series. We suggest the necessity of a cultural approach for these patients' clinical assessment, and a narrative and patient-centered care. Conclusions: Psychiatric transtheoretical reflections are needed for complementaristic neurobiological and cultural approaches of complex delusional syndromes such as clinical lycanthropy. Future research should include integrative frameworks.

RESUMEN

Delusional misidentification syndromes are associated with danger and may lead to homicide. Early assessment of the danger is a key part of the psychiatric examination. Compliance to treatment in psychosis is important to avoid the devastating consequences, for the perpetrator, the victim, and the community.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to analyse the coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes in a clinical sample. METHODS: Over one year, a sample of six patients presenting two or more types of delusional misidentification syndromes was selected. All these patients were admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit of a Spanish hospital. RESULTS: Despite the different diagnoses, the patients included presented different types of delusional misidentification syndromes, both hyperidentification and hypoidentification. Antipsychotic treatment was not very effective against these delusional misidentification syndromes CONCLUSIONS: The coexistence of several delusional misidentification syndromes indicates that the aetiopathogenesis of the different types is similar. It is a field with important clinical implications, due to the poor response to treatment, as well as the possible medico-legal implications.

RESUMEN

Capgras syndrome (CS) is a delusional misidentification syndrome that is encountered in various pathologies. Here, we report the case of an 83-year-old woman affected by dementia with Lewy bodies who presented a CS during the disease. The neuropsychological assessment showed executive and face processing deficits. In this case, CS was characterized, in the beginning, by the duplication of a relative and then by its multiplication. To our knowledge, the description of the evolution of a CS in the course of a neurodegenerative disease is rare and we discuss this multiplication phenomenon in light of existing models of delusions.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Capgras delusion is one of the delusional misidentification syndromes characterized by the belief by the patient that the close person is replaced by an imposter who looks physically the same. It rarely occurs in Postpartum Psychosis. An intriguing phenomenon with ongoing debates, particularly about its feature and prevalence, its course, occurrence, and phenomenon in the postpartum period are poorly understood. CASE PRESENTATION: A 26-year-old Nepalese woman presented to the emergency for abnormal behavior on her 9th postpartum day. Capgras delusion was observed for 2 days during her hospital stay. Other psychotic symptoms appeared progressively and were treated as a case of Postpartum Psychosis. CONCLUSION: This case describes the temporal sequence of various psychopathologies during Postpartum Psychosis including Capgras delusion. We attempt to explain the occurrence of Capgras delusion in Postpartum Psychosis.

RESUMEN

The delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS) have been described extensively in the descriptive literature of the last century given its unusual and often-distressing clinical presentations. In the last few decades, there have been advances in scientific research that have identified more precise brain areas involved in these delusional syndromes. Since DMS are reported in both early-onset psychosis and neurodegenerative conditions, the strategies to address and mitigate underlying etiology warrant a thorough assessment and individualized treatment planning. The age of onset, nature of the clinical presentation, the utility of diagnostic tests, and assessment of violence are few among many areas which need attention during clinical management of these rare syndromes.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To better elucidate the symptomatology and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS), we investigated the incidence rate and symptomatic features of DMS following stroke and relationships among DMS, other neuropsychological symptoms, and lesion locations. METHODS: The present study included 874 consecutive patients (371 women; mean age ± standard deviation = 72.2 ± 11.7 years) who were admitted to the rehabilitation wards at two hospitals within 2 months of their first stroke. We examined the clinical features and lesion sites of patients with DMS and compared them with those of a control group of patients with hemi-spatial neglect without DMS using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM). RESULTS: Among the 874 patients who experienced a stroke, we observed 10 cases of Fregoli syndrome. No other DMS subtypes were observed; however, eight patients exhibited somatoparaphrenia (five of them also had Fregoli syndrome) and one also exhibited reduplicative paramnesia. Right hemispheric lesions were found in all 10 cases. VLSM revealed statistically significant overlapping lesion sites specifically related to Fregoli syndrome when compared with the control group. The sites included the insula, inferior frontal lobe, anterior temporal lobe, and subcortical limbic system in the right hemisphere (i.e., areas connected by the uncinate fasciculus). CONCLUSION: The DMS incidence was 1.1% among patients after stroke. All patients had Fregoli syndrome and half had somatoparaphrenia, suggesting that the two syndromes share an underlying pathology. Lesions found with Fregoli syndrome were concentrated around the right uncinate fasciculus; this has not been reported in previous research.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS) is an umbrella term encompassing a variety of disorders. One rare form of DMS is the delusional misidentification of one's own reflection, known as "mirrored self-misidentification syndrome". In "mirror image agnosia", the ability to identify the image of self and/or others in the mirror is lost, while the ability to identify the mirror itself is preserved. To our knowledge, mirror image agnosia has never been described in a patient with schizophrenia. Herein we present a case of a patient with schizophrenia with severe delusions of both mirrored self-misidentification and mirror image agnosia without any structural abnormalities or dementia.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Although Alzheimer's disease presents homogeneous histopathology, it causes several clinical phenotypes depending on brain regions involved. Beside the most abundant memory variant, several atypical variants exist. Among them posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is associated with severe visuospatial/visuoperceptual deficits in the absence of significant primary ocular disease. Here, we report for the first time a case of Capgras delusion-a delusional misidentification syndrome, where patients think that familiar persons are replaced by identical "doubles" or an impostor-in a patient with PCA. The 57-year-old female patient was diagnosed with PCA and developed Capgras delusion 8 years after first symptoms. The patient did not recognize her husband, misidentified him as a stranger, and perceived him as a threat. Such misidentifications did not happen for other persons. Events could be interrupted by reassuring the husband's identity by the patient's female friend or children. We applied in-depth multimodal neuroimaging phenotyping and used single-subject voxel-based morphometry to identify atrophy changes specifically related to the development of the Capgras delusion. The latter, based on structural T1 magnetic resonance imaging, revealed progressive gray matter volume decline in occipital and temporoparietal areas, involving more the right than the left hemisphere, especially at the beginning. Correspondingly, the right fusiform gyrus was already affected by atrophy at baseline, whereas the left fusiform gyrus became involved in the further disease course. At baseline, glucose hypometabolism as measured by positron emission tomography (PET) with F18-fluorodesoxyglucose (FDG-PET) was evident in the parietooccipital cortex, more pronounced right-sided, and in the right frontotemporal cortex. Amyloid accumulation as assessed by PET with F18-florbetaben was found in the gray matter of the neocortex indicating underlying Alzheimer's disease. Appearance of the Capgras delusion was related to atrophy in the right posterior cingulate gyrus/precuneus, as well as right middle frontal gyrus/frontal eye field, supporting right frontal areas as particularly relevant for Capgras delusion. Atrophy in these regions respectively might affect the default mode and dorsal attention networks as shown by meta-analytical co-activation and resting state functional connectivity analyses. This case elucidates the brain-behavior relationship in PCA and Capgras delusion.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To explore the prevalence and clinical implications of the mirror and TV signs in the moderate to advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). METHODS: We retrospectively examined the prevalence of clinical and psychiatric symptoms including the mirror and TV signs in 200 subjects with AD and 200 with DLB and evaluated the relationships among the symptoms. RESULTS: The mirror sign was found in 3.0% of AD and 4.5% of DLB subjects. The TV sign was found in 1.5% of AD and 4.0% of DLB subjects. The prevalence of the mirror and TV signs was not significantly different between the AD and DLB groups. Visual hallucination, visual illusion, misidentification of person, and sleep talking were significantly more frequent in DLB than in AD subjects. The mirror sign was significantly associated with lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores, whereas the TV sign was significantly associated with the misidentification of person. CONCLUSIONS: Both the mirror and TV signs were rare even in the moderate to advanced stages of AD and DLB. The mirror sign may be independent from other delusional misidentification syndromes (DMSs). Being associated mainly with global cognitive decline, the mirror sign is unlikely attributed to any specific cognitive impairment or the dysfunction of localized brain areas. In contrast, the TV sign was significantly more often coexistent with the misidentification of person, suggesting that the TV sign may partly share common neuropsychological mechanisms with DMSs.

RESUMEN

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS) include conditions in which a false belief about the identity of a person, place, or object occurs in the context of psychiatric or neurological disorders. One form of DMS involves the delusion that the patient's mirror image is a separate individual. This review of reported cases characterizes the psychiatric, neuropathological, and neuropsychological aspects of DMS for the mirror image. An individual case presentation highlights the patient's subjective experience. Finally, the impact of this syndrome on the sense of self is considered. RECENT FINDINGS: Mirror DMS is a persistent delusion that occurs in the context of neurological illness. It is associated with right hemisphere impairment and a variety of neuropsychological and neuroimaging abnormalities. This phenomenon contributes to our understanding of a range of neurobehavioral syndromes that can be classified as neuropathologies of the self (NPS). DMS for the mirror image is a neurobehavioral syndrome in which the inability to recognize oneself in the mirror entails neurological, neuropsychological, as well as psychiatric aspects of the sense of self.

Asunto(s)