Mrs. D, a 74-year old married housewife, recently discharged from a local hospital after her first psychiatric admission, presented to our facility for a second opinion. At the time of her admission earlier in the year, she had received the diagnosis of atypical psychosis because of her belief that her husband had been replaced by another unrelated man. She refused to sleep with the impostor, locked her bedroom and door at night, asked her son for a gun, and finally fought with the police when attempts were made to hospitalize her. At times she believed her husband was her long deceased father. She easily recognized other family members and would misidentify her husband only.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Example of Capgras
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2 comments:
Yeah, that's terrible. The most you can hope for during that time is for the people to not harm themselves or those close to them. You never know, she could've snapped one day and really thought she was in danger by this "stranger" who kept claiming he was her husband, and could've shot him. So not only do they need to be aware of whats going on with them, but they need to constantly be reassured that they are NOT in danger and that these people are NOT strangers.
Cause:
It has been reported that the Capgras Syndrome and related substitution delusions, that 35% have an organic etiology. Some researchers believe that Capgras' syndrome can be blamed on a relatively simple failure of normal recognition processes following brain damage from a stroke, drug overdose, or some other cause. This disorder can also follow after accidents that cause damage to the right side of the brain. Therefore, controversies exist about the etiology of Capgras Syndrome, some researchers explain it with organic factors, others with psychodynamic factors, or a combination of the two,
Treatment:
Individual therapy may be best suited to treat the persons delusions. Persistence is needed in establishing a therapeutic empathy without validating the person’s delusional system or overtly confronting the system. Cognitive techniques that include reality testing and reframing can be used. Antipsychotics and other drugs have been used with some success.
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