In the spirit of Halloween, this week I wanted to
share with ya’ll a rare disease known as Cotard’s Delusion or Cotard’s
syndrome. In 1882, Dr. Jules Cotard first described this very rare mental
condition. Cotard’s syndrome comprises any one of a series of delusions that
range from a belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to insisting
that one has lost one’s soul or is dead. For this reason, many people refer to
this mental condition as Walking Corpse Syndrome.
Dr. Jules Cotard noted the
first case of a woman described as Mademoiselle X, who denied the existence of
her body and therefore the need to eat. This woman was convinced that she was
damned to eternal damnation and therefore decided she would die of starvation. Cotard's syndrome is usually encountered in people
afflicted with schizophrenia, neurological illness, mental illness, clinical depression, derealization, or a brain tumor.
It sounds crazy, but recent cases have been reported.
A 53-year-old Filipino woman, was admitted to the psychiatric unit after
complaining of being dead. She even said that she wanted to be taken to a morgue so that she could be with
dead people. Other cases have been reported with people who feel empty or just
feel dead inside.
So how do people get
this rare mental disorder? Cotard’s syndrom is caused by a malfunction in an
area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus, seen below.
The fusiform face area of
the brain is responsible for recognizing faces. The misfiring in this part of
the brain causes people to not be able to recognize familiar faces. This
disconnection also happens within themselves. If the effected person looks in
the mirror, they can have trouble recognizing themselves. This results in the
person then believing that they do not exist.
There have been report of successfully treating this disease. Pharmacological
treatments (mono-therapeutic and multi-therapeutic) using antidepressant, antipsychotic,
and mood stabilizing drugs have been proven to be effective. It has also been
proven that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is more effective than
pharmacotherapy.
So no, there are no things such as zombies. However, there are unfortunate
mental disorders. The misfires in the brain can cause people to lose their
minds and believe that they are dead. The emptiness they feel result in them
trying to commit suicide by starvation or other forms of suicide. The good news
is, with different treatment plans, that there are ways to help those affected.
So, calm down and do not worry kids, you can stop preparing your zombie
apocalypse bag and shelter. It’s only real on television.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion
Let me start off by saying the title of your post is very misleading lol. I enjoyed reading your post. I have always been interested in understanding how the human mind works so your post immediately caught my interest. I wonder if there are other methods of treating this mental disorder. When dealing with individuals suffering from psychosis, the administration of medication is not always full proof. After being released from a psychiatric unit, patients can simply just stop taking their prescribed medication.
ReplyDeleteI was not aware of this syndrome! I found this very interesting. I know I wouldn't like to one day not be able to recognize myself and think that I don't exist, so I am very glad that there are solutions to it. I can see how electroconvulsive therapy is more effective because sometimes patients do not always take their pills, especially in cases like this.
ReplyDeleteZombie! At first I thought you were going to talk about the whole African or Haitian origin of what a zombie was. I was talking to someone about this too though. each part of the brain is so valuable and if one part is disrupted or damaged it leads to some kind of usual outcome as long as you know what area is damaged. We mostly work on trying to add it treatments for what the brain may not be producing but I see how this can be vary difficult if the part is damaged or malfunctioning all together. If our visual cortex stopped then it doesn't matter how much signal gets to the brain if the brain will not do anything.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all let me start by saying... I LOVE ZOMBIES. Therefore, I already knew I would find this post interesting. I am super creepy and like dead things so when you said the part about the lady wanting to go to the morgue to be with the dead I laughed. This is so interesting. I cant believe that one part of the brain can control ones ability to recognize themselves. I feel like this would be really cool to experience but not to live with. Very interesting post!!!
ReplyDeleteSo I found this to be very interesting and very funny at the same time. I wanted to make a joke about how feeling dead inside isn't just a chem major feeling? Lol but in all seriousness great job on the post. I have never heard about this mental illness before and found it great that this had some form of cure.
ReplyDeleteThis is perfect for Halloween. I've never heard of this disease but I can see how it could be the inspiration for many horror movies. This sounds very similar to paranoid schizophrenia and many other mental illnesses. Also, I actually thought that this post was going to be about The Walking Dead so I got really excited lol. But the blog was very good, keep up the good work Caitlyn!
ReplyDeleteLet me start off by saying, I always love your blog posts. I've never heard of this disease before, so it was nice to learn about something new. It's crazy that our brain can stop us from recognizing familiar faces. It's great that there is some sort of a cure. Very nice post!
ReplyDeleteTW: Suicide, grizzly evilness
ReplyDeleteModern case of Cotard syndrome in Per Ohlin, former front-man for the black metal band "Mayhem"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_%22Dead%22_Ohlin