Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T07:32:46.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dangerous Delusions

Violence and the Misidentification Syndromes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Karel W. de Pauw  and
T. Krystyna Szulecka
Karel W. de Pauw*
Affiliation:
Leicester General Hospital
T. Krystyna Szulecka
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Basset law District General Hospital, Worksop
*
Psychiatric Department, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Among the mentally ill, those with well-developed delusions are more likely to commit violent crimes against persons than those with chronic, undifferentiated psychoses. Reports of violence associated with delusional misidentification are reviewed and four patients described who were either perpetrators or victims of assaults as a consequence of the syndromes of Frégoli, lntermetamorphosis, Subjective Doubles and Capgras. The cases illustrate the multiplicity of factors which have to be taken into consideration in order to predict whether an individual will act in a violent manner on these delusions.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 91 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addad, M., Benezech, M., Bourgeois, M. & Yesavage, J. (1981) Criminal acts among schizophrenics in French mental hospitals. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 169, 289–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barton, J. L. & Barton, E. S. (1986) Misidentification syndromes and sexuality. Bibliotheca Psychiatrica, 164, 105–120.Google Scholar
Benezech, M., Bourgeois, M. & Yesavage, J. (1980) Violence in the mentally ill: a study of 547 patients at a French hospital for the criminally insane. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168, 698–700.Google Scholar
Berson, R. J. (1983) Capgras' syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 969–978.Google ScholarPubMed
Blount, G. (1986) Dangerousness of patients with Capgras syndrome. Nebraska Medical Journal, 71, 207.Google Scholar
Christodoulou, G. N. (1978) Syndrome of subjective doubles. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 249–251.Google Scholar
Christodoulou, G. N. (1986) Course and outcome of the delusional misidentification syndromes. Bibliotheca Psychiatrica, 164, 143–148.Google Scholar
Christodoulou, G. N. & Malliaria-Loulakaki, S. (1981) Delusional misidentification syndromes and cerebral ‘dysrhythmia’. Psychiatria Clinica, 14, 245–251.Google Scholar
Courbon, P. & Fail, G. (1927) Syndrome d”illusion de Frégoli’ et schizophrénie. Bulletin de la Société Clinique de Médicine Mentale, 15, 121–125.Google Scholar
Crane, D. L. (1976) More violent Capgras. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 1350.Google Scholar
Enoch, M. D. & Trethowan, W. H. (1979) Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. Bristol: John Wright & Sons.Google Scholar
Foley, J. M. & Breslau, L. (1982) A new syndrome of delusional misidentification. Annals of Neurology, 12, 76.Google Scholar
Joseph, A. B. (1986) Focal central nervous system abnormalities in patients with misidentification syndromes. Bibliotheca Psychiatrica, 164, 68–79.Google Scholar
Kimura, S., Inamoto, Y. & Katsurada, T. (1981) A rare case of Capgras syndrome in wake-amine induced psychosis. Folia Psychiatrica et Neurologica Japonica, 35, 43–54.Google ScholarPubMed
Krakowski, M., Volavka, J. & Brizer, D. (1986) Psychopathology and violence: a review of literature. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 27, 131–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nasrallah, H. A. (1985) The unintegrated right cerebral hemispheric consciousness as alien intruder: a possible mechanism for Schneiderian delusions in schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26, 273–282.Google Scholar
Petrie, W. M., Lawson, E. C. & Hollender, M. H. (1982) Violence in geriatric patients. Journal of the American Medical Association, 148, 443–444.Google Scholar
Romanik, R. L. & Snow, S. (1984) Two cases of Capgras' syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 720.Google ScholarPubMed
Siomopoulos, V. & Goldsmith, J. (1975) Two reports of the Capgras syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 756.Google ScholarPubMed
Weinstock, R. (1976) Capgras syndrome: a case involving violence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 855.Google Scholar
Woytassek, L. B. & Atwal, S. S. (1985) Capgras syndrome in court. Nebraska Medical Journal, 70, 392–394.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.