Capgras delusion is the most common form of delusional misidentification
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Retrieved psychiatric literature and reference texts confirm that Capgras syndrome is recognized as the most common and frequently reported delusional misidentification syndrome.
Aims Capgras syndrome is the most common of the delusional misidentification syndromes. It is characterised by the delusional belief that a familiar person has been replaced by an identical imposter. Capgras syndrome is associated with functional conditions, like psychosis, but also with a range of organic conditions such as dementia, brain injury and Parkinson's disease. The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique situation where patients were unable to see their relatives in person, resulting in their only form of contact being via telephone or virtually. Methods We present a case of a 70 year old lady Mrs W, who was admitted with first episode psychosis. She developed Capgras syndrome during her admission, based purely in the auditory modality of talking to her husband on the telephone. She was firm in her conviction that he was an imposter, mainly based of ‘a different tone’ and using ‘different words’. Showing a photograph of her husband was met with full and appropriate recognition. Given that a significant minority of elderly patients with a Capgras delusion have an organic aetiology, neuroimaging and extended laboratory investigations, including auto-antibodies for limbic encephalitis, were performed which were unremarkable. With psychotropic medication, the Capgras delusion resolved, and on discharge she recognised her husband when they met again. Results The aetiology of Capgras syndrome remains unclear, although a range of causes have been suggested. Early psychodynamic
Delusional misidentification is the term used to classify a rare set of psychiatric disorders whose symptomatology involves the formation of specific mono-thematic and circumscribed delusions which are resistant to revision. The specificity of the delusional content is a characteristic feature of each respective condition, and a key explanadum. Over the years, a variety of delusional misidentifications have been reported and added to periodically, albeit with a regularity in keeping with their rarity. Voros, Tenyi, Simon and Trixler (2003), for example, recently reported a new form of delusional misidentification — Clonal Pluralization of the Self — in which the patient believed he was being cloned as a woman. More common is the Fregoli delusion in which patients believe that strangers are the same person in disguise. The most commonly reported and discussed example of delusional misidentification is the Capgras delusion: typically the belief that at least one family member or friend — some significant other — is an impostor.
developed on the Capgras delusion. The Capgras delusion is one of the principal forms of delusional misidentification … that the title ‘“Capgras syndrome’ should be reserved for the delusional misidentification and replacement … collaboration going. The neuropsychiatry of delusional misidentification, in particular, has been mainly driven
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