Capgras Syndrome in a Patient with Dementia

Abstract

The Capgras syndrome was first described as an ‘illusionf doubles' in 1923 by two French psychiatrists, Capgras and Reboul-Lachaux. Since then, a number of cases have been reported of this syndrome co-existing with functional as well as organic disorders. Enoch & Trethowen (1979) regarded the syndrome as purely functional – a manifestation of schizophrenia. Recently, there have been case reports describing the occurrence of Capgras syndrome with diabetes (MacCallum, 1973), hypothyroidism (Madakursira & Hall, 1981), hepatic encaphalopathy (Pies, 1982; Cummings, 1985), pseudo-hypoparathyroidism (Hay et al, 1974), temporal lobe epilepsy (Chawla & Virmani, 1977) and vitamin B12 deficiency (Zucker et al, 1981).The following report discusses the presence of Capgras syndrome in a patient with dementia.