Bilateral atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes in schizophrenic patients with Capgras syndrome: a case-control study using computed tomography.

Abstract

The computed tomographic scans of 12 patients with Capgras syndrome and 12 matched controls were blindly assessed. A variety of statistical comparisons between the two groups consistently showed that patients with Capgras syndrome had significantly more bilateral frontal and temporal lobe atrophy. Capgras syndrome may be associated with dysfunction of these areas. Interestingly, all of the index patients had paranoid schizophrenia, and these results suggest the hypothesis that in some schizophrenic patients the presence of Capgras syndrome may be a marker for the coexistence of a focal idiopathic neurodegenerative process that preferentially affects the anterior cerebrum bilaterally.