Capgras syndrome. You may have heard of it, or maybe it’s the first time you’ve heard of it. If so, we will give you an example so that you can get a simple idea of what it is about: imagine that you are sitting next to your partner watching television on a normal day, a quiet afternoon, like any other. Suddenly, your partner turns to you terrified and asks who you are. You smile thinking that it is a joke, but the other person insists that you answer him and when you do he does not believe you. What’s more, he insists that they have supplanted you, that they have replaced you. It may seem funny at first glance, but it is not at all. The suffering for those who suffer from it and the bewilderment for family members is undoubtedly terrible. Join us to find out what the strange intermetamorphosis syndrome is all about.
What is Capgras syndrome or intermetamorphosis syndrome?
In the complex universe of strange mental illnesses, we find ourselves with truly chilling ailments. The Jerusalem syndrome or the ghost host syndrome are just some of them. But the so-called intermetamorphosis syndrome is perhaps among the worst. Capgras syndrome was coined in recognition of the French psychiatrist who, in 1923, described the first case diagnosed with these characteristics. Jean Marie Joseph Capgras simply called it “L’illusion des sosies” (Illusion of Doubles). In her work, she spoke of a 74-year-old woman who claimed that her husband had ceased to be her husband. Without quite knowing how, he had been replaced by a stranger. Something really exasperating for her, that she recognized normally to everyone, family and friends, except her husband.
Causes of Capgras syndrome
Although it is quite rare, there are many psychologists and psychiatrists who have advanced in the study of the causes of Capgras syndrome. Specialists have come to the conclusion that it could be due to a clear disconnection between the visual recognition system and affective memory. If you have any relatives with dementia I’m sure you’ve seen it on some occasion. They stop recognizing their closest relatives, confusing them with others. Although in the case of intermetamorphosis syndrome, it is something more unusual and particular.
It was in a paper published in 1990 in the British Journal of Psychiatry, when two psychologists, Haydn Ellis and Young Andy, suggested the possibility that patients with Capgras syndrome had their conscious ability to recognize faces intact, but if that face I was very emotionally attached to them and their lives, so there was an activation problem. Namely, the more significant a person is to us, the greater the risk of forgetting him if we suffer from the fearsome Capgras syndrome.
What is really curious is that not only do they not recognize it, but they think that “they have been replaced”. In 1997, one of these same two psychologists, Haydn Ellis, presented a new study of Capgras syndrome, where he described the case of five people. All of them suffered from schizophrenia and, indeed, despite recognizing familiar faces, the more intimate they had with a person, the more difficult it was for them to identify them. Which came to demonstrate once again, the problem of emotional activation for recognition.
What would then determine the causes of intermetamorphosis syndrome would be the disconnection between the temporal cortex (where we all recognize faces or objects) and the limbic system, involved in emotions. Later, delirium would arrive due to a deterioration in the person’s reasoning, when thinking that, obviously, their relative “has been replaced.”
Symptoms of Capgras syndrome
Intermetamorphosis syndrome is a complex condition, and whose consequences for the patient’s mental health and family environment are really severe. When it begins to manifest, it does so with symptoms that can be identified by a neurologist or a psychiatrist. The first thing that the patient shows is a delusional idea of substitution by a double. This is the most characteristic and defining symptom of this syndrome.
hand in hand with it, the patient with Capgras usually presents behaviors of rejection or avoidance of a close relative, the loss of emotional recognition with this person, and the serious problems on a family or couple level, which usually derive from this situation. To make an accurate diagnosis, the evaluation of specialists is vital, who will apply neurological and neuropsychological tests to the patient, such as verbal fluency tests, facial recognition tasks, multitasking tests to corroborate executive functions, among other tools.
Treatment of intermetamorphosis syndrome
The first thing to know in this regard is that Capgras syndrome has no cure. Like other psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, the only thing that can be done once it is present is to control it. In this sense, treatment usually aims to reduce its symptoms, mainly using psychoactive drugs. Antipsychotics and anticonvulsants are usually prescribed. Its effect is complemented by psychological therapy and family therapy.
Other rare syndromes
And in addition to the rare Capgras syndrome, there are other disorders and conditions that are truly curious. For this reason, we have decided to leave you with this short selection with surprising and amazing syndromes, which we hope you will know only through theory.
In short, Capgras syndrome is a tragedy and, in turn, a medical curiosity that is well worth learning about. And you, have you heard about intermetamorphosis syndrome? How do you think you would react if a loved one suffered from it? Dare to leave us all your opinions in a comment. We will be looking forward to reading you!