Capgra’s Syndrome: All About The Mysterious Disorder

Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl. Let us assume that this person no longer recognizes his own mother. To make matters worse, they firmly believe that she is not who she says she is, and that their real mother has been replaced by an identical deceiver. This is Capgra’s syndrome.

It’s a psychotic disorder. The patient suffers from a bad belief that someone close to them has been replaced by another person. In other words: an identical replacement. This causes a reaction of intense fear and rejection. This usually happens to family members who live with the patient.

Etymology

The syndrome is named after the person who discovered the first case. In the 20th century, the French psychiatrist Jean Marie Joseph Capgras discovered it. He called it “double illusion” ( ilusión de los dobles ) in the early 1920s.

Capgras registered the case of a 74-year-old woman who believed that a stranger was there instead of her husband. The patient recognized her family members without issue. The only exception was her husband. Before that, nothing was known about Capgras.

Symptoms of Capgra’s syndrome

The most obvious symptoms of this disorder are the rejection or rescue of a family member. Usually this is a person they share an emotional connection with.

In fact, psychiatric professionals cataloged it as a loss of emotional identification. In other words, patients recognize the face in front of them. However , they do not remember the emotional link that once bound them to that person. As a result, they only see one stranger.

In many cases , the symptoms of Capgra share similarities with other disoriented elements. These elements have to do with different conditions. Some examples include: paranoid ideas, delirious beliefs, and serious family or partner problems while maintaining normal relationships with others.

Causes of Capgra’s syndrome

There is little research available on this disorder, which makes it difficult to know the exact cause. The similarities that Capgras shares with other psychiatric disorders are another obstacle. Basically, it suggests the need for more research.

During the 1990s, there were various studies and research projects on possible triggers of this distortion in human behavior. Below are some important findings:

• In 1990, the British Journal of Psychiatry published a study in which psychologists Haydn Ellis and Andy Young hypothesized that Capgra’s syndrome patients may have a reversed case of Prosopopeia. In other words, the patient’s conscious ability to recognize faces was intact. However, they suggested the potential for injury in the process responsible for automatically activating the emotional value of those faces. By not being able to do that, a patient could not recognize anyone close to them.
• In 1997, Haydn Ellis and his colleagues published a study of 5 patients suffering from Capgras Delirium (all were Schizophrenia patients). They confirmed that the patients, despite being able to consciously recognize faces, did not show a normal, automatic response of emotional activation.

Diagnosis of Capgra’s syndrome

To diagnose this condition, neurologists and psychiatrists must perform the following tests:

• Verbal conceptualization and flow test : Evaluates language use, as patients tend to show a decrease in verbal flow.
• Block design test (WAIS) : Measures visuospatial-visuoconstructive ability.
• Multitasking test : Tests executive functional skills that strongly depend on the frontal lobes.
• Verbal tests : Tests memory since memory loss is a symptom in some Capgras patients.

Treatment

Unfortunately, we do not know the causes of Capgra’s syndrome. This is why there is no specific treatment for the disorder. Current treatment is only palliative. This means that in principle this treatment only aims to control the symptoms. It controls them by using psychiatric drugs such as:

• Doctors usually include anticonvulsants in supportive care.
• Psychological therapy aims to help patients with cognitive reconstruction.
• Prescriptions may also include antipsychotics to combat the poor beliefs caused by the syndrome. In the same way, anxiolytics can also be used.