Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T17:46:38.115Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Case 23 - “My Body Is Being Taken over by a Fungus!”

Delusional Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2024

Matthew Gibfried  and
George T. Grossberg
Matthew Gibfried
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri
George T. Grossberg
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri
Get access

Summary

Delusional disorder is a mental illness characterized by the presence of one or more delusions for a period of at least one month. Delusional beliefs are based on the misinterpretation of external reality and are not made better with education or persuasion. The prevalence of delusional disorder in older adults is thought to be double that seen in younger adults. The occurence of delusional disorder is more common in later life when compared to other psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Seven subtypes of delusional disorder are recognized in the DSM-5. These include persecutory type, somatic type, jealous type, grandiose type, erotomanic type, mixed type, and unspecified type. Response to treatment of delusional disorder with antipsychotics is fair.

Keywords

delusional disorderpsychosislong-term carepsychotic disorderpsychosis
Type
Chapter
Information
Clinical Case Studies in Long-Term Care Psychiatry
Navigating Common Mental Health Challenges in Geriatric Care
 , pp. 111 - 116
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

González-Rodríguez, A., Monreal, J. A., Natividad, M., & Seeman, M. V. (2022). Seventy years of treating delusional disorder with antipsychotics: A historical perspective. Biomedicines, 10 (12).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
González-Rodríguez, A., Seeman, M. V., Izquierdo, E., Natividad, M., Guàrdia, A., Román, E., & Monreal, J. A. (2022). Delusional disorder in old age: A hypothesis-driven review of recent work focusing on epidemiology, clinical aspects, and outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (13).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardijan, N., & Szücs, A. (2016). Late-life psychotic disorders: Clinical aspects. Revue Médicale Suisse, 12, 1561–1564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kulkarni, K. R., Arasappa, R., Prasad, M. K., Zutshi, A., Chand, P. K., Murthy, P., & Muralidharan, K. (2017). Gender differences in persistent delusional disorder. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 39 (2), 216–217. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.203123. PMID: 28515568; PMCID: PMC5385760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muñoz-Negro, J. E., Gómez-Sierra, F. J., Peralta, V., González-Rodríguez, A., & Cervilla, J. A. (2020). A systematic review of studies with clinician-rated scales on the pharmacological treatment of delusional disorder. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 35, 129–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kulkarni, K., Arasappa, R., Prasad, M. K., Zutshi, A., Chand, P. K., Murthy, P., Philip, M., & Muralidharan, K. (2017). Risperidone versus olanzapine in the acute treatment of persistent delusional disorder: A retrospective analysis. Psychiatry Research, 253, 270–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Further Reading

Tampi, R. R., Young, J., Hoq, R., Resnick, K., & Tampi, D. J. (2019). Psychotic disorders in late life: A narrative review. Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trindade, P., Laginhas, C., Adão, C., Canas-Simião, H., Marques, A. R., & Caetano, R. (2022). Therapeutic challenge in delusional disorder: A case report and literature review. European Psychiatry, 65 (Suppl 1), S767. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.1979CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×