The delusions and hallucinations almost always reflect the person's deeply depressed mood – for example, they may become convinced they're to blame for something, or that they've committed a crime. "Psychomotor agitation" is also common.
Persecutory type: This is one of the most common types of delusions and patients can be anxious, irritable, aggressive, or even assaultive - some patients may be litigious. Somatic type: Also called monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis and the reality impairment is severe.
The types of delusions and hallucinations are often related to your depressed feelings. For example, some people may hear voices criticizing them, or telling them that they don't deserve to live. The person may develop false beliefs about their body, such as believing that they have cancer.
The most common type of delusional disorder is the persecutory type — when someone believes others are out to harm them despite evidence to the contrary.
Patients with psychotic depression may have somatic delusions (such as the conviction that one's abdominal organs are decomposing). Such patients are much more likely to be misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia than a physical illness.
Some examples of common somatic delusions include: Fears of infestation or infection. People with somatic delusions often believe they've been infected by parasites that have taken over their internal organs, or by tiny insects that have burrowed under their skin to lay their eggs. Distorted body image.
Negation or nihilistic: This theme involves intense feelings of emptiness. Somatic: This is the false belief that the person has a physical issue or medical problem. Mixed: This is when a person is affected by delusions with two or more themes.
The Fregoli delusion is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise.
Grandiose delusions are usually associated with high self-esteem and self-serving attributional style and low levels of depression, anxiety and negative self-evaluation.
Although delusion of poverty generally occurs in psychotic depression, the history clearly details a psychotic illness (during which antidepressants failed but antipsychotics were beneficial) on which a depressive episode (responded to electroconvulsive therapy and antidepressants) was superimposed 3 years later.
In the context of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions may be considered mood congruent (such as feelings of personal inadequacy, guilt, or worthlessness during a bipolar disorder depressive episode) or incongruent.
Paranoid delusions, also called delusions of persecution, reflect profound fear and anxiety along with the loss of the ability to tell what's real and what's not real. They might make you feel like: A co-worker is trying to hurt you, like poisoning your food. Your spouse or partner is cheating on you.
De Clerambault in 1885 is reviewed and a case is presented. Popularly called erotomania, the syndrome is characterized by the delusional idea, usually in a young woman, that a man whom she considers to be of higher social and/or professional standing is in love with her.
Capgras syndrome (CS), or delusion of doubles, is a delusional misidentification syndrome.[1] It is a syndrome characterized by a false belief that an identical duplicate has replaced someone significant to the patient.
Othello syndrome (OS) is a type of paranoid delusional jealousy, characterized by the false absolute certainty of the infidelity of a partner, leading to preoccupation with a partner's sexual unfaithfulness based on unfounded evidence (4).
Delusions of grandeur are one of the more common ones. It's when you believe that you have more power, wealth, smarts, or other grand traits than is true. Some people mistakenly call it “illusions” of grandeur.
Nihilistic delusions, also known as délires de négation, are specific psychopathological entities characterized by the delusional belief of being dead, decomposed or annihilated, having lost one's own internal organs or even not existing entirely as a human being.
Folie à deux is defined as an identical or similar mental disorder affecting two or more individuals, usually the members of a close family. Two case reports of this condition are presented with a brief review of the literature. Prompt recognition of this condition is an essential step in the management.
Clanging means that a person chooses words based on their sound associations rather than their meaning. People may sound as if they are rapping, rhyming, or reciting a list of words rather than typical speech patterns. Some examples of clanging include: repeating rhyming words. repeating puns or overusing puns.
Do not reason, argue, or challenge the delusion. Attempting to disprove the delusion is not helpful and will create mistrust. Assure the person that they are safe and no harm will come.
Examples of erotomania
Someone listens for secret messages directed at them in their favorite musician's lyrics. A person spends their free time finding out everything they can about a famous actor, singer, or political figure that they believe loves them.