INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES
MENTAL HEALTH
AND
POSTER PRESENTATION
Delusional disorder-jealous type: sleeping with
the enemy
Adriana Carapucinha1 and Safira Hanemann1
From the 23rd EFPT Forum, Porto, Portugal. 22–27 June 2015.
Abstract
Introduction: Jealousy, the emotional state linked with the
desire to preserve one's possession, is a common human response. It may present as the content of a psychopathological phenomenon such as delusions - delusional or morbid
jealousy. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably
with “Othello’s syndrome”, referring to a delusion characterized by the false absolute certainty of the infidelity of a
partner. Delusional jealousy may be associated with several
psychiatric and neurological disorders including Delusional
Disorders (DD). DD are characterized by the presence of one
or more nonbizarre delusions (jealousy, persecutory, somatic,
erotomaniac or grandiose) and the relative absence of associated psychopathology. It is classically described that individuals suffering from delusional jealousy frequently harbor
varying forms of hostility, posing medicolegal consequences.
Objectives: Concerning a clinical vignette of a patient with
DD – jealous type, the purpose of this work is to make a critical review of literature on this disorder.
Methods: A search through electronic databases has been
made for original research and review articles using the search
terms 'Othello syndrome, morbid jealousy, pathological jealousy, delusional disorders, paranoia'. All literature in English or
Spanish dated from twenty years ago onward was examined
and 15 articles were selected.
Results: Among 398 patients with a jealousy disorder, only
4% met diagnostic criteria for DD-jealous type. Age at onset
is usually middle or late adulthood and the jealous type corresponds to approximately 10% of DD. Depression is more
frequent among the jealous and persecutory types. Speech
comprehension, executive functioning, attention and verbal
memory are functions which appear to be altered in DD. Erotomanic, jealous, and persecutory types might be associated
with higher risk for violence.
Discussion: DD is not rare, but DSM criteria might not be inclusive enough to diagnose the jealous type of DD. Despite
having some disabilities, “pure” DD seem to have preserved
basic social cognitive abilities. Regarding therapeutics aspects, literature is confusing, but the last decade’s results
suggest optimism about the potential for treatment effectiveness.
Conclusions: It is concluded that further exploration is required and greater epidemiologic, diagnostic and therapeutic attention needs to be given to Delusional Disorders.
Supplementary material: Complete presentation available at
http://ijcnmh.arc-publishing.org
Garcia de Orta Hospital, Almada, Portugal
1
Correspondence: [email protected]
Citation: Carapucinha, A. Delusional disorder-jealous type: sleeping with the
enemy. IJCNMH 2015;2(Suppl. 1):P22
Published: 20 June 2015
Open Access Publication
Available at http://ijcnmh.arc-publishing.org
© 2015 Carapucinha, A. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.