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Research Article Open access CC BY 3.0

Cotard’s Syndrome: Clinical Case Presentation and Literature Review

Alessandro Carano, Domenico De Berardis, Marilde Cavuto, Carla Ortolani, Giampaolo Perna, Alessandro Valchera, Monica Mazza, Michele Fornaro, Felice Iasevoli, Giovanni Martinotti, Massimo Di Giannantonio

International Neuropsychiatric Disease Journal · pp. 348–355 · Published 23 Jul 2014

10.9734/INDJ/2014/7215

Abstract

In 1880 French neurologist Jules Cotard described a condition characterized by delusion of negation (nihilistic delusion) in a melancholia context. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in Cotard’s syndrome. The most prominent symptoms of Cotard’s Syndrome are depressive mood, nihilistic delusions concerning one’s own body and one’s own existence, delusions of guilt, immortality and hypochondria. The aim of the present paper is to review literature evidences concerning Cotard’s syndrome and to describe a clinical case keeping in the background the recent trends on its psychopathological implications. In the clinical study, the following sequence of stages emerged: the dissociative side, expressed as a loss of body-mind cohesion; the ‘mixed’ mood disorder, with depressive-manic episodes, and a persecutory background, all coexisting in the anguish of the idea of a body falling apart, the anguish of a descent towards the abyss of melancholia and/or an ascent to unlimited euphoria, characteristic of an “uncommon alarm” for loss of Self cohesion.  

Cotard nihilistic delusion melancholia negation depression

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Cited by 6

The ‘dead man walking’ disorder: an update on Cotard’s syndrome

Carmine Tomasetti, Alessandro Valchera, Michele Fornaro · International Review of Psychiatry · 2020

Cotard’s Syndrome in a Patient with Schizophrenia: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Jeff Huarcaya-Victoria, Mario Ledesma-Gastañadui, Maria Huete-Cordova · Case Reports in Psychiatry · 2016

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