Capgras syndrome (Sozja syndrome) is classified as a psychiatric disorder, the so-called delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS) in which the patient experiences specific delusions.
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The patient claims that a person or group of people around them (wife, husband, child, colleague, grandparent, neighbour, friend, postman) has been swapped/substituted for another person, but with the same appearance, behaviour, gesticulation and dress. This situation applies not only to people but also to objects, places or animals.
The person affected by Capgras syndrome recognises the people, objects and places around him or her, but believes that they have changed their identity (he or she does not feel a bond with them, does not trust them, treats them as enemies).
Capgras syndrome - causes
The studies carried out to date, and the analyses of the patients' condition, indicate that one of the causes of the development of Capgras synd rome may be damage to neuronal structures in specific areas of the brain. These are structures whose purpose is to connect the face and object recognition centre with the limbic system (which plays a key role in attributing specific emotional states to the objects seen).
This situation can occur in people who:
- have had a stroke (post-stroke),
- following mechanical trauma,
- after rupture of aneurysms,
- with cerebral haemorrhages, and others.
Capgras syndrome - symptoms
Delusions of this nature are very common in schizophrenics. The predominant sympt om in patients with this syndrome is the belief that, among other things, a known person is being "switched" by an extraterrestrial being or double. There is no way of explaining or convincing the patient that this has not happened. The patient lives with this conviction and talks about it, but does not try to look for the changeling, does not wonder what happened to him or her and where he or she is at the moment. All the time, however, he or she is trying to figure out the plans of the 'imposter' and to expose him or her to others. Patients display two types of behaviour: some are afraid of this 'impostor', feeling fearful of him, and others, treating him as an enemy, attacking him, being aggressive towards him.
As the illness progresses, the delusions become stronger and worse, the patient tells themselves and others that there is someone else in the house, e.g. rearranging their belongings, stealing objects, rearranging personal belongings. Interestingly, they hear animals in the house. In a very advanced form of the illness, the patient begins to have self-doubt and has difficulty recognising themselves in the mirror (mirror misrecognition syndrome).
Capgras syndrome - treatment
Capgras syndrome requires detailed diagnosis and the inclusion of appropriate treatment. It is a very rare condition where the patient is treated on an individual basis. Appropriate antipsychotic medication and psychotherapy are selected. All this is selected according to the patient's condition and the severity of the disease.
