Advertisement Symptoms: Sufferers complain of having lost blood or body parts and believe that they have died and become a walking corpse. They might claim that they can smell their own rotting flesh and feel worms crawling through their skin. In the syndrome’s most profound form, patients believe they do not exist.
Psychoses: Walking corpse syndrome has occurred in the context of depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and it often is associated with dementia. It also can occur in association with organic brain abnormalities.
Treatment: Antidepressant drugs have shown little efficacy, but electroconvulsive therapy shows greater promise.
Case report: The March 2004 edition of the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience tells of a 27-year-old man who was admitted to a hospital with the diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder. His symptoms were somatic delusions of gastrointestinal and cardiovascular malfunction and the absence of a stomach, which resulted in a decrease in weight from 165 to 138 pounds in a month. Tests showed lesions on the left hemisphere of his brain. The patient did not respond to antipsychotic therapies, but he was successfully treated with electroconvulsive therapy.
