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Cotard’s syndrome – a review

Kamil Leis1, Dominika Gapska1, Tomasz Aleksiewicz1, Katarzyna Litwin1, Kacper Miętkiewicz1, Przemysław Gałązka2
Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
Psychiatr Psychol Klin 2018, 18 (3), p. 320–324
DOI: 10.15557/PiPK.2018.0040
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Cotard’s syndrome, originally described by a French physician Jules Cotard in 1880 as le délire des négations (the delirium of negation), is a condition in which the patient experiences nihilistic delusions, assuming their own death and, paradoxically, resulting immortality. This extremely rare mental illness often co-occurs with depression, schizophrenia and other conditions characterised by misidentification, such as Capgrass delusion or Fregoli delusion. Whilst it is still open to investigation whether Cotard’s syndrome is to be considered an independent clinical entity, certain symptoms specific to the disease and some structural brain changes seem to support this theory. However, owing to its extremely low prevalence, Cotard’s syndrome is not included in either the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization. Currently, management depends on the most likely underlying cause, e.g. depression, schizophrenia, subdural hematoma, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease or hydrophobia. Substances known to be effective in different cases include antidepressants and antipsychotics. Despite multiple attempts at classifying the condition, the 1995 classification by Berrios and Luque, subdividing Cotard’s syndrome into three types, is the most popular one by far. The first type involves depression and hallucinations, the second is known as Cotard’s syndrome type I (absence of depressive episodes but with hypochondriac delusions), whilst Cotard’s syndrome type II is also characterised by depression.

Słowa kluczowe
Cotard’s syndrome, depression, schizophrenia, delirium of negation