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The Capgras Delusion
Published in Ragy R. Girgis, Gary Brucato, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Understanding and Caring for People with Schizophrenia, 2020
Ragy R. Girgis, Gary Brucato, Jeffrey A. Lieberman
Sid had developed a Cotard delusion, which is the belief that one is dead or dying or that parts of one’s body are decaying. Patients with this delusion may feel that they are dead, or feel immortal, albeit physically rotting and dead. Depressive symptoms are commonly a significant part of the clinical syndrome.
Cotard Syndrome (Walking Corpse Syndrome)
Published in Alexander R. Toftness, Incredible Consequences of Brain Injury, 2023
(STORY 3) In 1989, a 28-year-old man was severely injured in a motorcycle accident, resulting in a fluctuating coma and near-coma state for a few days. When he awoke, he couldn't remember the past three or four weeks. Scans of his brain revealed damage in multiple places, including frontal lobe atrophy, “multiple haemorrhagic contusions” in his right temporal cortex, and differences in the adjacent parietal regions (p. 800). This extensive damage was reflected in his symptoms, which included partial paralysis and partial blindness. However, the symptoms did not end there. For months after the accident, the patient believed that he was dead and had extreme feelings that events happening around him weren't real. He had trouble with recognizing previously familiar things such as places and faces, and “he described his vision as ‘like listening to a foreign language'” (p. 800). When he visited a city that he knew well, he couldn't recognize the buildings, and supposed that they must have all been knocked down and replaced while he was away. When he was released from the hospital and taken on a trip to a foreign country, he was convinced that he had died and been taken to hell. At one point, there was some evidence that he was feeling depressed, but otherwise he did not seem to be suffering from any broad mental illness or “general dementing condition” (p. 803). Because the disorder was not associated with notable mental illness, this person is probably best classified as having Cotard syndrome type I. Later on, he showed signs of recovery from his difficulties in recognizing, and from his Cotard delusion. In the end, the “feeling of being dead resolved completely” (Young et al., 1992, p. 800).
‘I am dead’: Cotard syndrome and dementia
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2019
Gabriele Cipriani, Angelo Nuti, Sabrina Danti, Lucia Picchi, Mario Di Fiorino
A systematic research (PubMed, EBSCO, that included CINAHL with full text and MEDLINE Complete databases) was carried out (only upper time limit: June 2018). We found: 130 articles using the terms ‘Cotard Syndrome’; 35 articles using the terms ‘Cotard delusion’; 11 articles using the terms ‘Cotard’ and ‘Dementia’; 55 articles using the terms ‘nihilistic delusion’. Publications found through this indexed search, that included also non-English publications, were reviewed and manually screened to identify relevant studies. We manually added chapters of books articles identified through other sources (i.e., Google Scholar and key journals). At the end of the process, 85 among articles and chapters of books were included in our qualitative synthesis.
A medical algorithm for Cotard delusion based on more than 300 literature cases
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2021
Rosa A. S. Couto, Luís Moreira Gonçalves
It is worth mentioning that, although being common in literature the use of the expression ‘Cotard syndrome’, herein ‘Cotard delusion’ will be preferred. It will be done so following the suggestion of Young and collaborators (Young et al. 1992). They inclined towards the term ‘delusion’ since a single delusional symptom is often observed, and not always a florid association of symptoms that categorises a ‘syndrome’; Cotard’s seminal work described 5 other features besides a nihilistic delusion: depression, suicidal ideation, delusions of ‘damnation or possession’, no pain, and delusions of immortality (Cotard 1880).
Editorial 3
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2021
In this issue’s highlight, Couto and Moreira Gonçalves propose a medical algorithm for Cotard delusion based on more than 300 literature cases. The result of a meticulous review of the literature, their approach aims to offer help in the differential diagnosis and management of this perplexing condition.