Dangerous Delusions

Psychiatric factors associated with dangerous misidentification delusions.

The delusional misidentification syndromes are characterized by misidentification delusions of others or of the self. Aggressive ideas or behaviors often accompany these delusions. The relationship between delusional misidentification and dangerousness remains for the most part poorly understood. In the present article, we compare a group of dangerous individuals suffering from dangerous miside...

Dangerous delusions? Misidentification syndromes and professional negligence.

A number of case histories have reported an association between the presence of misidentification syndromes and violent behavior. If patients with such delusions are truly more likely to perpetrate violent acts, treating mental health professionals could potentially be considered liable for not warning or protecting potential victims. However, the purported association between violence and misi...

Insane Delusions

Delusions of parasitosis.

The most common monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis encountered by a dermatologist is delusions of parasitosis. In this condition, patients have an "encapsulated" fixed, false belief that they are infested with parasites or have foreign objects extruding from their skin. The patient will often experience feelings of biting, crawling and stinging related to the delusion. Most patients do n...

Delusions in Young People

A delusion is usually decribed as an erroneous belief of the falseness of which its possessor cannot be persuaded of by reasoning nor by the evidence of his own senses, and which is contrary to the general belief of persons of his own race, age, standing and training. A person who believes that he can raise men from the dead or one who states that he is a canary or another who believes that he ...