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Capgras syndrome
Etiology:
- neurodegenerative disorders
- Alzheimer's disease & others
- focal lesions of the right hemisphere
Pathology:
- a delusional misidentification syndrome associated with lesions in the right hemisphere
Clinical manifestations:
- delusions of imposters
- belief that important & familiar persons in their life have been replaced with fraudulent doubles [2]
- beliefs may involve places, for example his/her own home is a replica of the real one
- patient insists that familiar items have been have been placed in the replica in order to trick him/her
- loss of emotional connection
Management:
- reassurance & reasoning generally ineffective
- antipsychotic agents generally indicated
General
delusional disorder
syndrome
References
- Medical Knowledge Self Assessment Program (MKSAP) 16.
American College of Physicians, Philadelphia 2012
- Devinsky O.
Delusional misidentifications and duplications: right brain
lesions, left brain delusions.
Neurology. 2009 Jan 6;72(1):80-7
PMID: 19122035
- Hirstein W.
The misidentification syndromes as mindreading disorders.
Cogn Neuropsychiatry. 2010 Jan;15(1):233-60
PMID: 20017039