Clinical and imaging features of Othello's syndrome

Our objective was to document the clinical and imaging features of Othello's syndrome (delusional jealousy).

The study design was a retrospective case series of 105 patients with Othello's syndrome that were identified using the Electronic Medical Record system of Mayo Clinic.

The average age at onset of Othello's syndrome was 68 (25-94) years with 61.9% of patients being male. Othello's syndrome was most commonly associated with a neurological disorder (73/105) compared with psychiatric disorders (32/105). Of the patients with a neurological disorder, 76.7% had a neurodegenerative disorder. Seven of eight patients with a structural lesion associated with Othello's syndrome had right frontal lobe pathology. Voxel-based morphometry showed greater gray matter loss predominantly in the dorsolateral frontal lobes in the neurodegenerative patients with Othello's compared to matched patients with neurodegenerative disorders without Othello's syndrome. Treatment success was notable for patients with dopamine agonist induced Othello's syndrome in which all six patients had improvement in symptoms following decrease in medication.

This study demonstrates that Othello's syndrome occurs most frequently with neurological disorders. This delusion appears to be associated with dysfunction of the frontal lobes, especially the right frontal lobe.