Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-ff9ft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-04T10:52:43.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capgras syndrome in a very late onset, treatment resistant schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2015

M. K. Nurul Ain ,
R. Rosdinom  and
M. Raynuha
M. K. Nurul Ain
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
R. Rosdinom*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
M. Raynuha
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Rosdinom Razali, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Phone: +603 9145 6143; Fax: +603 9145 6681. Email: rosdinom@ppukm.ukm.edu.my.
Get access

Abstract

We report a Malay man, with underlying chronic medical illnesses, presenting with positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including Capgras syndrome (CS) at the age of 73. Physical examination and blood investigations were normal and brain CT scan showed age-related cerebral atrophy. Neuropsychological assessment showed probable right hemisphere lesions but relatively intact memory and intellectual functions. Several neuroleptics including depot injections were tried but ineffective. Positive symptoms including CS eventually improved with clozapine before his death from myocardial infarction. This case report highlights the uncommon occurrence of CS in treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) of very late onset and its treatment challenges.

Keywords

Capgras syndromeelderlytreatment resistant schizophreniavery late onset schizophrenia

Information

Type
Case Report
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 27 , Issue 9 , September 2015 , pp. 1573 - 1575
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2015 

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alexander, M. P., Stuss, D. T. and Benson, D. F. (1979). Capgras syndrome: a reduplicative phenomenon. Neurology, 29, 334–339.Google Scholar
Barak, Y., Wittenberg, N., Naor, S., Kutzuk, D. and Weizman, A. (1999). Clozapine in elderly psychiatric patients: tolerability, safety and efficacy. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 40, 320–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burns, A., Jones, P. and Lewis, S. W. (1987). Capgras's syndrome in a patient with dementia. British Journal Psychiatry, 150, 876–877.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1976). Lateralized temporal-limbic dysfunction and psychopathology. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 280, 777–797.Google Scholar
Josephs, K. A. (2007). Capgras syndrome and its relationship to neurodegenerative disease. Archives of Neurology, 64, 1762–1766.Google Scholar
Kirov, G., Jones, P. and Lewis, S. W. (1994). Prevalence of delusional misidentification syndromes. Psychopathology, 27, 148–149.Google Scholar
Sadock, B. J. and Sadock, V. A. (2008). Kaplan and Sadock's Concise Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, p. 187.Google Scholar
Shenton, M. E., Dickey, C. C., Frumin, M. and McCarley, R. W. (2001). A review of MRI findings in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 49, 1–52.Google Scholar
Staton, R. D., Brumback, R. A. and Wilson, H. (1982). A disconnection syndrome of memory. Cortex, 18, 23–26.Google Scholar
Todd, J., Dewhurst, K. and Wallis, G. (1981). The syndrome of Capgras. British Journal Psychiatry, 139, 319–327.Google Scholar