Health, Mental Health
Kapgra syndrome: symptoms, treatment, photo
The Kapgra syndrome is a fairly rare mental illness. People suffering from this deviation are sure that a particular person from his close environment is replaced by a double. Suspicion can fall on mother, brother, children. In addition, in some cases, the patient convinces people of the existence of his own twin, which, he said, is guilty of carrying out the actions allegedly on his behalf.
The essence of the disease
A mental disorder is named after a famous French doctor. It was Jean Marie Joseph Capgra who first noticed this deviation in his patients, singled out and described it. The psychiatrist observed how a particular individual accuses his comrade of being an impostor. Very often, he registered such cases among the notorious workaholics who, because of chronic fatigue and continuous stress, accused their business partners or colleagues of being false, false.
Clinical picture
The Kapgra syndrome is a paranoid obsession. It can be of two types:
- A person is sure that there is a double in front of him. He sees him, talks to him, argues with his opponent, can touch him and so on. He shows it to the doctor, that is, the object is visible to everyone without exception.
- The patient does not physically see the twin. But at the same time he constantly feels his presence beside him. In this case, the double remains invisible not only for him, but also for society.
Specific examples
As already mentioned, Kapgra's syndrome manifests itself as an accusation of people in that they are doubles, or naming oneself as such. Psychiatrists argue that most often under open suspicion are the spouses. A woman, tired of family life, suffering a tyrant husband, suffering postpartum depression, who lost as a result of the tragic events of the child, refuses to go to bed allegedly with an imposter. She closes in her room in the key, buys a gun to protect herself. She knows other family members well. The reason for this behavior is not only the circumstances described above, but also various injuries and neuroses.
Symptoms
The Kapgra syndrome begins to progress after 30 years of age. Before that, it can be in a dormant, or latent, state. Although science knows cases when teenagers or even children are ill. For example, in psychiatry, a case is described where the first signs of an illness were manifested in a 15-year-old girl. She was sitting with her brother and father in a cafe and suddenly she suddenly announced that she was being drugged with narcotic substances. Already in a medical institution, she accepted her mother for an impostor, and called the night-time attendant a father who came only to cause her physical and mental suffering.
Causes of appearance
The clinical picture is described in detail by psychiatrists of world renown. They professionally studied the Kapgra syndrome: photos of complex patients, videos of the most delusional monologues, they are analyzed in detail, the correct conclusions are made. Instead, the causes of the appearance of the disease are still vague and not fully understood. It is said that the main impetus is damage to the back of the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls the recognition and recognition of the appearance of people, the appearance of objects. To this may result in severe head injury or an unsuccessful operation.
Basic forms of the syndrome
Doctors say that the mentally unstable person is particularly vulnerable to this illness. In addition, they distinguish several forms of the disease:
- Syndrome Fregoli. This is a "mirror" version of the disorder described above, when the patient "recognizes" relatives in strangers. The Kapgra and Fregoli syndrome are very similar in their essence and manifestations.
- The phenomenon of the incubus is a psychic deviation, when the patient starts to assure that during night dreams he comes into sexual contact with an imaginary lover.
- The phenomenon of delusional hermaphroditism. Described in 1999. It was first discovered by a young man who was trying to convince doctors that he was the object of persecution of a literary character, who was settling in people around him.
Is it possible to cure the disease?
Everything depends on the basis on which the Kapgra syndrome developed. For example, if he was found in a patient already schizophrenic, then he can be quickly helped. Properly prescribed medications suppress even a very alarming state, constantly arising fears and suspicions. If the cause of the syndrome is head trauma, the doctors do not prescribe treatment for the syndrome for some time, giving the brain the opportunity to adjust their work. In most cases, the gray matter itself suppresses imaginary images that are reproduced in his imagination.
Therapy
Its duration depends on the degree of severity, the form of the disease, its neglect. It can be argued that almost always doctors help a patient forget what is Kapgra syndrome. Treatment can last several years, but there are cases when the patient gets rid of the disease in only ten weeks. In any case, the doctor weighs all the features of the disease in a particular person and appoints him individual therapy. For example, antiepileptic drugs help to eliminate delusions.
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