Capgras syndrome

n. The delusion that others, usually close relatives or friends, have been replaced by identical looking imposters, exact doubles. Patients presenting this delusion claim that although the imposter may look exactly the same as the real person, they know well they are not the same. The imposter is usually a significant person for the patient and may be the husband or wife or somebody else in a particularly significant relationship to the patient. Capgras syndrome may be associated with other disorders or conditions and can be interpreted as a particular subtype of a delusional misidentifi- cation syndrome. Capgras syndrome has not only been reported in specific psychiatric conditions, usually paranoid schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, but also been associated with a neurological pathology, such as a temporal lobe abnormality.

- AA