Not What It Seems – Delusional Misidentification Syndromes

Abstract

Introduction The delusional misidentification syndromes (DMSs) are psychopathologic phenomena in which a patient misidentifies persons, places, objects or events. The most common form of misidentification is the Capgras Syndrome (Capgras and Reboul-Lachaux, 1923), other types are Fregoli Syndrome (Courbon and Fail, 1927), Intermetamorphosis Syndrome (Courbon and Tusques, 1932) and Syndrome of Subjective Doubles (Christodoulou, 1978). There are other syndromes, generally not included in DMSs, which share some common characteristics, like Mirrored Self, Reduplicative Paramnesia, Delusional Companions and Clonal Pluralization of the Self. These delusions can be the greater part of the presentation or secondary to several psychiatric and neurological disorders. Objectives and Aims The authors intend to describe the DMSs, including its definition, epidemiology, etiology, presentation and some considerations about treatment, prognosis and forensic psychiatry. Some of the hypotheses that have been suggested to explain these syndromes will be also addressed. Methods The authors conducted a literature review about delusional misidentification syndromes. Results and Conclusions It’s important to physicians to be able to recognize these syndromes and be aware of the need to investigate the existence of possible organic diseases. The patients with more structured delusions, as seen in DMSs, are more frequently involved in acts of violence. It’s imperative to assess the risk of aggression, mainly, against the 'impostor”, in order to prevent violent behavior. There have been few systematic studies in broad samples about this theme. More research is needed.