Case report: Clinical lycanthropy in Huntington's disease

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder.
• Clinical lycanthropy is a rare psychiatric condition involving a delusion of being an animal.

Observation:

• A patient with Huntington's disease developed a two-year history of anxiety and obsessional preoccupations.
• This progressed to psychosis with clinical lycanthropy (delusion of being a werewolf).
• Standard antidepressants and antipsychotics were ineffective.

Findings:

• Clozapine treatment led to remarkable improvement in the patient's psychotic symptoms and delusional beliefs.
• The patient's choreiform movement disorder also showed improvement as his mental state stabilized.
• This is the first reported case of clinical lycanthropy in a patient with Huntington's disease.

Implications:

• This case highlights a potential therapeutic role for Clozapine in managing complex psychiatric manifestations of HD.
• It underscores the importance of considering neurological conditions in atypical presentations of clinical lycanthropy.
• The case prompts further investigation into the interplay of cultural factors, somatosensory processing, and self-perception in delusional disorders.