Syndrome of the subjective doppelganger

The subjective doppelganger syndrome is a rare form of delusional misidentification in which a person is delusively convinced that they have a doppelganger who looks the same but usually has different character traits and leads a life of his own.

Sometimes the patient feels that there is more than one doppelganger.

A doppelganger can be projected onto anyone from a stranger to a family member.

This syndrome is often diagnosed during or after the onset of other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders with hallucinations. There is no generally accepted method of treatment as most patients require individualized therapy. The prevalence of this disorder is relatively low, but some cases have been documented since the disorder was defined by George Christodoulou in 1978.

Since the syndrome of the subjective doppelganger is not clearly defined in the literature, it could be diagnostically underrepresented.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ahuja Vyas: Textbook of Postgraduate Psychiatry. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishing, 2003, ISBN 81-7179-648-6 , pp. 226-227.
2. ↑ George N. Christodoulou, M. Margariti, VP Kontaxakis, NG Christodoulou: The delusional misidentification syndromes: strange, fascinating, and instructive. In: Current Psychiatry Reports. 2009, 11 (3), pp. 185-189. doi: 10.1007 / s11920-009-0029-6 . PMID 19470279 .
3. ↑ Orrin Devinsky: Delusional misidentifications and duplications: right brain lesions, left brain illusions. In: Neurology. 2009, January, 72 (1), pp. 80-87. doi: 10.1212 / 01.wnl.0000338625.47892.74 . PMID 19122035 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Joyce R. Kamanitz, Rif S. El-Mallakh, Allan Tasman: Delusional Misidentification Involving the Self. In: The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 1989 177 (11), pp. 695-698. doi: 10.1097 / 00005053-198911000-00007 . PMID 2681534 .
5. ↑ GN Christodoulou: Syndrome of Subjective Doubles. In: The American Journal of Psychiatry. 1978, 135 (2), pp. 249-152. PMID 623347 .
6. ↑ Phillip Cowen: Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. 6th edition. Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-960561-3 , 2012, pp. 307-308.

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