COTARDS DELUSION

Patrick Bernard D. Ang

BSMT 2A


What is Cotards Delusion?
The Cotard delusion (also Cotard's
Syndrome and Walking Corpse Syndrome)
is a rare mental illness, in which the
afflicted person holds the delusion that he
or she is dead, either figuratively or
literally. As a mental illness, Cotard's
Syndrome also includes the patient's
delusion that he or she does not exist as a
person; that he or she is putrefying; and
the delusion either of having lost blood or
internal organs, or both.
Symptoms
The delusion of negation is the central
symptom in Cotard's syndrome. The
patient afflicted with this mental illness
usually denies their existence, or the
existence of a certain body part, or the
existence of a portion of their body.
Cotard's syndrome is in three stages:

(i) Germination stage the symptoms of
psychotic depression and of hypochondria
(Health phobia or anxiety) appear; (ii)
Blooming stage the full development of
the syndrome and the delusions of
negation; and (iii) Chronic stage
continued, severe delusions and chronic
psychiatric depression.
Manifestations
- withdraws the afflicted person from
other people, which includes neglecting
his or her personal hygiene and physical
health.
- prevents the patient from making sense
of external reality, producing a distorted
view of the external world.
- depression



Treatment
- pharmacological treatments (mono-
therapeutic and multi-therapeutic) using
antidepressant, antipsychotic, and mood
stabilizing drugs
- Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)