LIST OF 13 PSYCHOLOGICAL SYNDROMES IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS - ECONOMÍA - 2024

We show you a list of psychological syndromes that children, adolescents, adults and the elderly can suffer. Without a doubt, the human mind is very complex and science has not yet been able to determine exactly how it works or why certain disorders appear.

Many of the psychological disorders that we will see below, are classified by the scientific community as delusions. Delusions are generally very extravagant beliefs, which despite being false and uncommon, are held to be true.

Whoever suffers from a delusion is really very convinced of what he believes to be true and defends his "reasons" vehemently. The delusions and syndromes that follow are the strangest, and many of them remain a mystery to this day.

Capgras delusion

Whoever suffers from this syndrome believes that there is an impostor who is identical to him and who pretends to be him in front of everyone. But only he knows that this person is not identical to himself in all respects.

Another curious characteristic of this disorder is that this impostor is a person who maintains a close family bond with the person who suffers from it. In Capgras delusion, the patient begins to avoid that relative and suffers when both must be in the same room.

Scientists maintain that one of the things that the patient has lost is precisely the awareness of the bond that unites them. He sees him as a true stranger. When this problem has been diagnosed, psychiatric treatment is absolutely necessary.

After the first stage of care, the treatment integrates psychological assistance. Antidepressant drugs, anti-psychotics plus cognitive therapy have shown very good results. However, the disease does not go away completely.

Clinical lycanthropy

Also known as licomania or therianthropy, this syndrome may be familiar to you, as it has a certain relationship with the legend of the werewolf.

Regardless of whether it is a legend or not, there are people who believe they are a wolf. There are also people who believe that they have been possessed by other animals such as cats or hyenas.

Othello syndrome

Perhaps you have heard of a Shakespearean play in which the protagonist, named Othello, kills his wife out of jealousy. Indeed, in Othello syndrome, the deranged person feels jealous of her partner with such intensity that it can kill her.

Even if there is no evidence of infidelity, or even if there is no reason to suspect, those who suffer from this disorder experience strong obsessive thoughts.

Othello's syndrome is psychiatrically classified as a delusion, and many times this disorder is found as part of a chronic delusional disorder, paranoia or a schizophrenia picture.

The person does not stop questioning and persecuting his partner and even comes to think that if there is some little thing that has changed in the home, for example, a piece of furniture that has been moved slightly, the patient believes that the lover of his partner has moved him, and that is therefore proof of his infidelity.

In general, this syndrome appears in patients without significant psychiatric history and occurs more in men than in women.

In most treatments, the psychotropic drugs given are similar to those prescribed for schizophrenics.

Paris syndrome

It is a syndrome that occurs almost exclusively in Japanese. It happens mostly with Japanese who arrive in Paris and suffer a culture shock. But this goes beyond a naturally logical cultural difference.

It is a transient psychological disorder found in some individuals who visit Paris on vacation as a result of the extreme shock resulting from their discovery that Paris is not what they expected it to be.

Thought insertion

This type of disorder is a problem in what psychologists and psychiatrists call "autonomy of the self." The person is convinced that her thoughts are not her own, but someone else's.

On certain occasions, especially when the patient acts in an incoherent or inappropriate way, the person says they have no idea where those thoughts come from. You think that someone else has surely put them in your head, because they are not your own thoughts.

This condition is typical of schizophrenia, and is treated with antipsychotic medications. The affected person must rigorously follow a very controlled treatment, as they can acquire a very aggressive behavior profile.

Jerusalem syndrome

Clinically this syndrome is classified as a psychosis with delusional aspects. It usually happens after the person visits the city of Jerusalem.

The patient begins to become obsessed with this city, experiences symptoms of anxiety, begins to wear a toga, sings religious hymns, recites verses from the Bible and may even preach in public, believing that he is a prophet.

Others believe that they are embodying Moses, the Virgin Mary, or other biblical characters.

A peculiar aspect of this syndrome is that it can affect both Christians and Jews. In the case of Christians, those who suffer from the disorder usually incarnate characters from the New Testament, while Jews with Jerusalem syndrome believe they embody some character from the Old Testament.

Lima syndrome

Palace of Justice of Lima

The name is due to the Peruvian capital, in which a favorable circumstance for this disease was experienced for the first time.

It occurs when the kidnappers or captors create an almost emotional bond with their victims, feeling sorry for them and beginning to contemplate their needs in a different way.

Cotard syndrome

In 1880 Jules Cotard described this strange psychiatric syndrome in detail. The person, who is alive and well, thinks he is dead.

Those with this disorder perceive themselves as dead and believe that their tissues are slowly deteriorating. Although they see that nothing is really happening with their body, they are not aware of it.

Among the many symptoms, the most prominent are believing that they are running out of blood and thinking that there are worms degrading their body, which are hidden under their skin.

This syndrome appears suddenly and settles permanently. There are different degrees of the disease. It generally accompanies schizophrenia, although the medications that treat the latter are not enough to dispel the symptoms of Cotard's syndrome.

One of the treatments that has been shown to be most effective for this disorder is electroconvulsive therapy. The electric shock that the patient receives causes a significant increase in blood supply to certain parts of the brain. The basal ganglia and the frontal cortex have been shown to be very sensitive areas in this type of disorder.

Those who suffer from Cotard's syndrome reach one of the last stages of the disease with acute insomnia and very firm ideas of suicide. Hence the importance of being diagnosed and carrying out adequate treatment.

Stendhal syndrome

Do you like art Can you imagine that being in a museum in front of a great art exhibition, you suddenly have an attack of anguish?

These are the symptoms of Stendhal syndrome, which occurs when the person is exposed to particularly beautiful works of art.

Stockholm syndrome

In Stockholm syndrome, it is the kidnapping victim who begins to experience affection and sympathy for her captors.

It was learned of a case in which a woman married one of the criminals who had taken her hostage in the attack on a bank.

Ekbom syndrome

In this case, people consider that they are being infected by parasites all the time. Imaginary parasites can "be" on your skin, under it, or in your home, permanently lurking.

Those who suffer from it come to consult the hospital indicating that they are full of parasites. Many times the patient continuously moves his legs because the parasites are moving on his skin.

To a lesser extent, he also moves his arms, as they believe that parasites are bothering him. This syndrome significantly affects sleep and hours of rest.

Reduplicative paramnesia

In this case, the cause of the disorder is quite clear, as it is associated with a brain disorder. The area specifically involved is the frontal lobes and the right cerebral hemisphere.

The person suffering from reduplicative paramnesia is in a certain physical space, and believes that this space is also duplicated in another place, that there are two identical places in different spaces.

That is why it is called reduplicative paramnesia. The person thinks that the places have been replicated or duplicated, due to a failure in the correct identification of a certain site.

Apparently, when the person returns to a certain place, he evokes certain memories of that place but cannot be aware that it is the same place, so he believes that it is another physical space, exactly the same as the one he remembers.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome

The name honors the famous novel by Lewis Carroll, because those who suffer from it suffer an alteration in the perception of time and space.

There are many professionals who assure that it is not a mental disorder, although there is no clear consensus. For some reason, which has not yet been precisely determined, those affected see objects of a different size than they really are.

Similarly, they have a hard time determining what physical space they are in. They can ensure for example that they are inside a room when in reality they are outdoors.

Treatments for these types of problems are usually multidisciplinary, and usually involve different psychoactive medications in combination with psychological therapies.

Although they are strange psychological syndromes, you may know of a case.