cotards syndrome

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The walking dead does in fact exist. However, it is not the flesh eating zombie that many think about when hearing the term ‘walking dead.’ Instead, it is a rare and serious mental disorder also known as Cotard’s Syndrome. “In 1880, Jules Cotard (1840-1889) described the syndrome that bears his name as a constellation of false nihilistic beliefs, often in the form of self-negation.” (Ramirez-Bermudez, Aguilar-Venegas, Crail-Melendez, Espinola-Nadurille, Nente & Mendez, 2010) Throughout time there has been many controversies regarding what causes this disease. Cotard’s Syndrome was finally divided into three groups in 1995 as psychotic depression, Cotard’s Syndrome Type I, and Cotard’s Syndrome Type II. “Cotard formulated a new type of depression, characterized by anxious melancholia, ideas of damnation or rejection, insensitivity to pain, delusions of nonexistence concerning one’s own body and delusions of immortality.” (Debruyne, Portzky, Peremans & Audenaert, 2011) Cotard’s Syndrome Type I consisted of hypochondria, nihilistic delusions, and little to none of the depression stages. Cotard’s Syndrome Type II had symptoms of anxiety, auditory hallucinations, and delusions of immortality, depression, nihilistic delusions, and serious suicidal behavior. Those that develop Cotard’s Syndrome usually had an underlying cause most often being bipolar disorder. People who are most effected by Cotard’s Syndrome, are mostly women. Ages don’t necessarily matter, however studies have shown that persons of a late age are more likely to develop Cotard’s Syndrome on top of bipolar or serious depression. Due to having another disorder diagnosing someone with Cotard’s Sundrome can be quite tricky. A CT, or Computed Tomography, can be used to di... ... middle of paper ... ...cy is shortened. If a person does get treated, the life expectancy is normal, but the person who suffered from Cotard’s Syndrome believes that they were in fact once dead. Works Cited Ramirez-Bermudez, J., Aguilar-Venegas, L., Crail-Melendez, D., Espinola-Nadurille, M., Nente, F., & Mendez, M. (2010). Cotard syndrome in neurological and psychiatric patients. 22, 409-416. Retrieved from http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org Debruyne, H., Portzky, M., Peremans, K., & Audenaert, K. (2011). Cotard's syndrome. 2(1), 67-72. Retrieved from www.slm-psychiatry.com K, D. (2013, Oct 31). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://sites.psu.edu/gearycal137/2013/10/31/Cotards'syndrome/ Freedman, J., & Duckworth, K. (2012, July). Ect. Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/Teplate.cfm?Section=About_Treatments_and_supports&Template=/contentmanagement/contentdisplay.cfm&contentID=142939

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