Syndrome of subjective doubles

Some people believe that they have a double or Doppelgänger, which looks the same, but which has different character traits. They also think that this Doppelgänger is leading a life of his or her own.[1][2] This condition has been classified as a delusion, and is also called the syndrome of doubles of the self,[3] delusion of subjective doubles,[1] or simply subjective doubles. Sometimes, the patient is under the impression that there is more than one double.[1] A double may be projected onto any person, from a stranger to a family member.[4]

This syndrome is often diagnosed together with another mental disorder, such as schizophrenia or other disorders involving psychotic hallucinations.[5] There is no widely accepted method of treatment, as most patients require individualized therapy. The prevalence of this disease is relatively low, as few cases have been reported since the disease was defined in 1978 by George Nikolaos Christodoulou (b.1935), a Greek-American Psychiatrist.[5][6] However, subjective doubles is not clearly defined in literature,[7] and therefore may be under-reported.[5]

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Vyas, Ahuja (2003). Textbook of Postgraduate Psychiatry. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishing. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-8171796489.
  2. Christodoulou, George N.; Margariti, M.; Kontaxakis, V. P.; Christodoulou, N. G. (2009). "The delusional misidentification syndromes: strange, fascinating, and instructive". Current Psychiatry Reports. 11 (3): 185–189. doi:10.1007/s11920-009-0029-6. PMID 19470279. S2CID 7255596.
  3. Blom, Jan Dirk (2010). A Dictionary of Hallucinations. Springer. p. 497. ISBN 978-1441912220.
  4. Devinsky, MD, Orrin (January 2009). "Delusional misidentifications and duplications: right brain lesions, left brain illusions". Neurology. 72 (1): 80–87. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000338625.47892.74. PMID 19122035. S2CID 207103708.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Kamanitz, Joyce R.; El-Mallakh, Rif S.; Tasman, Allan (1989). "Delusional Misidentification Involving the Self". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 177 (11): 695–698. doi:10.1097/00005053-198911000-00007. PMID 2681534. S2CID 12383361.
  6. Christodoulou, G. N. (1978). "Syndrome of Subjective Doubles". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 135 (2): 249–51. doi:10.1176/ajp.135.2.249. PMID 623347.
  7. Cowen, Phillip (2012). Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 6th ed. Oxford University Press. pp. 307–308. ISBN 978-0199605613.