Have you heard of Capgras syndrome?
The ability to recognize people’s faces and distinguish between different faces is present from birth and develops during the first few years of life, but what if you ever realized that you can’t recognize a close family member?What if you thought the person was being replaced?by an impostor?
- This strange feeling is how people with Capgras syndrome feel.
- Who believe that loved ones have been replaced by impostors pretending to be them.
However, before delving into this syndrome, it is necessary to remember several concepts, such as prosopagnosia and delusions, to better understand and learn to differentiate between these two conditions.
In 1891, Sigmund Freud coined the term agnosia to define the inability to grasp the meaning of various sensory stimuli. Thus, prosopagnosia is a word derived from the union of Greek terms. “Prosopon”, which means “face” and? What does “recognition” mean.
As you can imagine, in prosopagnosia it is difficult to recognize familiar faces, this occurs as a result of brain damage, especially in the parietal and parietooccipital regions.
On the other hand, an illusion is made up of ideas (called illusions) that are fantastic transformations of reality, false beliefs based on an incorrect interpretation of reality by the individual.
There are five types of delusional experiences: delirant perception, delusional interpretation, delusional judgment, delusional fantasy, and delusional inspiration.
After making this introduction, it must be said that delusional false identification syndromes were considered a curiosity until recently, when they became more relevant.
In false identification syndromes, perception is recorded correctly and the interpretation of this perception is incorrect, that is, what the individual sees is real, but what he interprets is not.
There are four variants of delusional misidentification syndrome
Which of these misidentification syndromes is most common?Capgras syndrome is the most common false-identification delusion syndrome. This syndrome has been reported in 5% of psychotic patients.
Capgras syndrome was described in 1923 by Jean Marie Capgras and J. Reboul-Lachaux. A 53-year-old patient with chronic psychosis was delusional convinced that her husband and son had been replaced to harm her.
Capgras syndrome, also known as double delirium, is a psychiatric disorder that involves not identifying relatives, as we have already described, the interested party believes that real people have been replaced by a double, an almost identical imposter.
In Capgras syndrome, there is recognition without a sense of familiarity. It is common in this syndrome for the spouse or child of the person with the syndrome to induce partial recognition (“Seems”), but insufficient for the person to be convinced of their true identity.
The double individual, or impostor, acquires for the patient the same physical traits as the “original” person. However, his mind or personality belongs not to him, but to an imposter.
The illusion of the patient with Capgras syndrome leads him to imagine that the imposter acts in the same way as the real person, creating confusion for him and highlighting him in front of others.
Capgras syndrome has been linked to various pathologies, usually schizophrenia, vitamin B12 deficiency, hyperthyroidism, diabetes mellitus, poisonings, dementia, etc.
Among the explanatory theories of delirium have been proposed different disconnection syndromes between the different brain structures involved, as well as other explanations on the lateralization and location of the dysfunctions that cause delirium.
In order to establish the diagnosis of Capgras syndrome, there must be no deterioration of consciousness or severe dementia, as under these conditions recognition errors are common and variable.
This strange syndrome is difficult to treat. Antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants, cognitive and behavioral therapies have been successfully applied, but there is no guarantee of a cure.
In psychotherapy, cognitive restructuring is mainly used in conjunction with interventions with the family, due to the emotional distress posed by this syndrome.
Capgras syndrome is a complex process that is not limited to a simple facial treatment problem, is a multiple dysfunction based on cognitive processes related to familiarity and involved in the interpretation of abnormal perceptions and the formation of beliefs.
KAPLAN, H. I. , SADOCK, BJ Synopsis of Psychiatry, eighth edition. Madrid: Pan american? Williams and Wilkins, 1999.
Junqué, J. Barroso, J. Neuropsychology. Madrid: Ed. Sontesis Psicologia; 1999.