A 26-year-old man with schizophrenia insists that his mother has been replaced by an exact double who looks identical but is an impostor. He recognises her face perfectly and can describe their shared memories accurately, yet remains convinced she is not his real mother. Which phenomenon is he displaying?

• A Fregoli delusion
• B De Clerambault syndrome
• C Cotard delusion
• D Capgras delusion ✓

Explanation

The Capgras delusion is the fixed belief that a familiar person has been replaced by an identical impostor. It reflects a disconnection between facial recognition and the autonomic emotional response to familiar faces, often linked to right frontal or temporal dysfunction. The Fregoli delusion is the opposite error, where a stranger is believed to be a familiar person in disguise, which kills option A.

Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 12th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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