The British Journal of Psychiatry 152: 91-96 (1988)
© 1988 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Dangerous delusions. Violence and the misidentification syndromes
KW De Pauw and TK Szulecka
Leicester General Hospital.
Among the mentally ill, those with well-developed delusions are more likely
to commit violent crimes against persons than those with chronic,
undifferentiated psychoses. Reports of violence associated with delusional
misidentification are reviewed and four patients described who were either
perpetrators or victims of assaults as a consequence of the syndromes of
Fregoli, Intermetamorphosis, Subjective Doubles and Capgras. The cases
illustrate the multiplicity of factors which have to be taken into
consideration in order to predict whether an individual will act in a
violent manner on these delusions.