inspiring canadians to live better.

healthing leaf

inspiring canadians to live better.

healthing leaf
mosquito-borne diseases affect up to 700 million people each year. learn more
powered by: valneva canada inc.
home / 2022年世界杯名单猜测

case study: man doesn't recognize himself

a neurological condition can lead people to believe a friend or relative has been replaced by an imposter. but mr. b’s delusion involved himself.

by dave yasvinski

jan 4 2021
read time 3 minute read
join the conversation
case study: man doesn't recognize himself
getty
a relatively healthy 78-year-old man living in france became alarmed after taking a long look at the man the mirror. he had no idea who was staring back at him.

“the stranger was a double of himself: he was the same size, had the same hair, body shape, and features, wore the same clothes and acted the same way,” said the researchers who documented the patient’s strange ordeal for neurocase . “mr. b. talked with this stranger and was puzzled because he knew much about him. mr. b. even brought food to the mirror with cutlery for two persons.”

“eventually, the patient told his daughter that the stranger (had) became aggressive and she decided to drive her father to the hospital,” said capucine diard-detoeuf, the neurologist in france who treated the man and eventually co-authored the case study, according to live science .

doctors determined that mr. b had atypical capgras syndrome, a neurological condition that leads people to believe that a close friend or relative has been replaced by an imposter that looks and sounds like them in every way. however, the atypical nature of the diagnosis meant that mr. b’s delusion involved himself and not another person.
it also meant getting into a confrontation every time he wanted to use the washroom — a less than ideal state of affairs when you have an aging bladder. he was prescribed anti-psychotic medication for his delusions and anti-anxiety medication for the stress of living with an aggressive stranger.

related stories

gluten sensitivity makes woman try to kill her parents
doctors consider link between the brain and celiac disease after woman shows schizophrenic-like symptoms.
is there a connection between celiac disease and psychiatric disorders? getty

case study: teen's sudden psychosis had cat connection
the family wracked up $400,000 in medical bills trying to figure out what was wrong.
bartonella henselae lives in the blood of cats and kittens

advertisement

after three months with his new medication, the unwanted stranger was successfully evicted from mr. b’s mirror.

capgras syndrome was named after jules capgras, the french physician who first published a report on the poorly understood condition in 1923. although most commonly associated with patients suffering from schizophrenia or paranoia, capgras is not currently listed in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders .

the understudied condition, also known as delusional misidentification , is different from face blindness (or prosopagnosia), a similar condition where people no longer recognize best friends or family members. patients struggling with prosopagnosia still show changes in skin conduction when viewing someone they know — meaning their brain recognizes them on an emotional, if not conscious level. with capgras syndrome, however, there is no level of familiarity toward the imposter in the mirror.

doctors still aren’t sure what causes this breakdown of communication within the brain or whether the condition is primarily the result of a cognitive or physical issue. there is some speculation that the syndrome is the product of faulty memory management, where instead of constantly updating old image files of the people stored in one’s brain, patients with capgras syndrome are constantly creating new images. this could lead to a discrepancy in information that the brain struggles to deal with.

advertisement

what is known, however, is that these sorts of delusions are devastating to the sufferer and it is important for patients to feel believed. “the impact on the patient’s family can be heartbreaking,” ryan darby , an assistant professor of neurology at vanderbilt university medical center. “i’ve seen patients who, thinking their homes were replicas, would pack their bags every night, hoping to return to their ‘real’ home. patients who believe a spouse is an imposter often lose intimacy.

“in these cases, even just knowing that the delusion has a name and is part of a neurological disorder can be helpful for family members.”
dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
don’t miss the latest 世界杯决赛2022. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter.

comments

postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. we ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. we have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. visit our community guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.