P-239 - Cotard's syndrome - a case report

Abstract

Dr. Jules Cotard (1840–1889) was a Parisian neurologist who first described the délire des négations. Cotard's syndrome or Cotard's delusion comprises any one of a series of delusions ranging from the fixed and unshakable belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to believing that one has lost one's soul or is dead. In its most profound form, the delusion takes the form of a professed belief that one does not exist. Nihilistic delusions were described by Cotard to refer to a special type of hypochondriacal delusion associated to melancholia. Although Cotard himself and other XIX and XX centuries' psychiatrists have considered it from different approaches a specific clinical entity, most of the authors estimate that nihilistic delusion is either a syndrome or a symptom which can appear in different psychiatric disorders. To describe a case study of a patient diagnosed with Cotard's Syndrome and make a revision of the literature. Search in the PubMed/MedLine and Medscape databases with the following key words: Cotard; depression; delusion; nihilism. The same symptoms still persist and are shown the same way in our clinical practice as they were in the remote Cotard's times.