Clinical Lycanthropy: A Delusional, Lost Mind

Abstract

Lycanthropy is a rare variant of delusional misidentification syndrome, especially reverse intermetamorphosis, where patients believe that they are experiencing transformation or have transformed into animals. Clinical lycanthropy has been reported with various neuropsychiatric conditions, including primary psychotic and affective conditions, drug intoxication and withdrawal, cerebrovascular disease, traumatic brain injury, dementia, delirium, and seizures. Despite neuroscience still lacking the knowledge to explain the thoughts twenty-first century psychiatric has tried to theme and their cultural aspects, which relate to patient phenomenology, personal experience, and the patient and their families story telling. Clinical lycanthropy is an example of a syndrome in which environmental and cultural factors have been involved in the clinical experience of neuropsychiatric disorders since ancient times. A dual neuroscientific and cultural approach can help to better understand the clinical presentation of patients with psychiatric disorders and help to find relevant avenues of research.