Post by Joanna on May 7, 2014 23:36:51 GMT -5
Werewolf Delusion Even less Common than Scientists Thought
They grunt, claw and believe their bodies are covered in hair and their nails are akin to those of a canine, and some are convinced they are in the process of turning into a wolf.
Intrigued by treating a patient who believed himself to be a werewolf, Dr. Jan Dirk Blom, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands researched the archives of mental health care professionals in an attempt to discern the prevalence of the condition. He was able to find 56 original case descriptions of people who believed they were metamorphosing into an animal and 13 reports, since 1850, met the criteria for clinical lycanthropy, the medical term delusions of being able to turn into a wolf. The adjective “clinical” is used to emphasize the condition does not denote actual lycanthropy, or the ability to physically metamorphose physically into a wolf. According to the study published in the the March issue of History of Psychiatry, other cases included patients whose delusions led them to believe they were a dog, snake, frog or bee. “I had expected to find more cases, because in textbooks the condition is mentioned quite often in passing,” Blom said. Such a low number of clinical lycanthropy cases reported in excess of 150 years suggests the condition is even more rare than previously thought. Doctors “should take heed not to cry wolf too often,” he added.
There are several medical conditions that may have contributed to the early belief in the existence of werewolves. The first is hypertrichosis: Those afflicted have unusually long hair on the face and body. A second is porphyria, characterized by extreme sensitivity to light, causing victims to become more active at night. The condition can also result in anxiety, seizures and other symptoms. Clinical lycanthropy, on the other hand, is a recognized medical condition in which a person believes him/herself to be an animal.
The wolf in the mirror. The idea of shape-shifting humans has been around since ancient times and remains an evocative theme today, particularly in books, movies and TV shows. But less attention has been devoted to clinical lycanthropy. “In clinical practice, many cases are missed because mental health professionals are insufficiently aware of the existence and the uniqueness of this disorder,” Blom continued. There are several medical conditions that may have contributed to the early belief in the existence of werewolves. The first is hypertrichosis: Those afflicted have unusually long hair on the face and body. A second is porphyria, characterized by extreme sensitivity to light, causing victims to become more active at night. The condition can also result in anxiety, seizures and other symptoms. Clinical lycanthropy, on the other hand, is a recognized medical condition in which a person believes him/herself to be an animal.
The condition is generally believed to be a rare expression of another disorder, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression. Indeed, in reviewing all 56 cases of those who delude themselves into believing they change into animals, Blom found that 25 percent of the patients were schizophrenic, 23 percent were psychotically depressed and another 20 percent suffered from bipolar disorder. The group was comprised of 34 men and 22 women and their symptoms continued anywhere from an hour to decades.
The first case report of clinical lycanthropy was that of a man convinced he had changed into a wolf who was admitted to an asylum in Nancy, France, in 1852. “To demonstrate this," Blom explained, the man “parted his lips with his fingers to show his alleged wolf’s teeth, and complained that he had cloven feet and a body covered with long hair. He said that he only wanted to eat raw meat, but when it was given to him, he refused it because it was not rotten enough.”
Other patients in the reports suffered similar delusions concerning changes in their appearance. One saw the head of a wolf when looking at himself in the mirror, another was convinced the bones in her body had been replaced by those of a pig, and one felt claws growing from her toes.
The brain that sees a wolf. Although for millennia, explanations for lycanthropy were metaphysical, eventually, modern science theorized the condition could result from diseases of the brain.
Various brain imaging studies performed during the past decade have pointed to specific areas that appear to be essential for creating the sense of physical existence and body schema perception, Blom said. These regions include areas in the cortex (outer layer) that are responsible for movement and sensation. “We know that neural circuits in the brain – involving premotor and sensory cortical areas, and probably various subcortical areas as well – are essential to creating our body schema,” he added.
In the cases reviewed by Blom, patients perceived changes in their physical appearance. For example, some believed the shapes of their mouths and teeth had changed, or that their chests had broadened. Others were convinced their bodies were shrinking and there were those who experienced burning sensations in the their abdomens and thighs. It is possible that in some patients, such delusions originated from problems in the related regions of the brain, profoundly altering the individual’s sense of physical identity, he explained.
In 1905, French neurologists labeled the condition coenaesthesiopathy. Today, psychiatrists use the ectroencephalogram (EEG) or other brain imaging techniques to search for abnormalities in brain areas that give rise to body schema and sense of self, Blom added. Still, because clinical lycanthropy tends to occur in conjunction other major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, psychotic depression or bipolar disorder, the best practice would be to treat the underlying disorder, he concluded.
Sources: Bahar Gholipour, LiveScience, April 20, 2014; Benjamin Radford, Live Science, October 30, 2012; and The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings by Brad Steiger.