Psychiatrists have cured a 70-year-old woman who was victimized by a con artist and fell into erotomanic delirium
Medical professionals described a case from practice: an elderly Hungarian woman fell in love with an online fraudster pretending to be a famous musician. As a result, the woman developed erotomania, or Clerambo syndrome, and almost committed suicide.
A 70-year-old married woman was admitted to the psychiatry department of the Lajos Markusovsky University Hospital in the Hungarian town of Szombathei. She was hospitalized after a suicide attempt, which the patient made because of constant conflicts with her husband, according to a report published in the journal BMC Psychiatry.
According to the patient, she had felt neglected by her family all her life. This was exacerbated by her mother's dementia, later developed depression and loneliness, despite the fact that the woman lived with her husband, and there was a son and grandchildren. The depressed state was also affected by a whole bunch of different diseases: deep vein thrombosis, diabetes mellitus with polyneuropathy, high blood cholesterol, spondylosis, lumbar spondyloarthrosis, osteoporosis, lumboischialgia (pain, coldness or fever in the leg or lower back), vertebral-basilar syndrome and tinnitus. Since about age 55, the woman had been taking antidepressants and anxiolytics for dysthymia and anxiety.
The erotomania story had been going on for more than a year, and it started when her husband gave his wife a smartphone. In social networks, she came across the account of a young musician, began to write comments, admiring his work. Over time, it grew into a kind of obsession: the fan began to perceive the idol not only as a talented artist, but also as a sexually attractive man. She persuaded her husband to go to the concert in the hope of a personal meeting.
Soon a man who introduced himself as the musician wrote in personal messages. The conversations became more and more explicit.
The patient told the doctors that one day she received a phone call from the musician's "secretary". He arranged a telephone conversation during which the object of lust confessed his love. Over time, the woman went on a diet, began to use cosmetics and even reported her feelings to her spouse, but he did not immediately pay attention to it.
Meanwhile, the "musician" began to beg for large sums of money, among the reasons citing the need to pay phone bills. This led to an aggravation of the conflict in the victim's family: the husband was worried and eventually filed a police report without his wife's knowledge. However, the woman resumed communication in a new profile on social networks and again forced her spouse to give her money. Afraid of losing her "love", the patient became increasingly desperate: she began to accuse her husband of interfering with her personal happiness and threatened to commit suicide. After failing to get a proper response, she still made an attempt to kill herself.
Doctors diagnosed her with erotomanic delusions, dysthymia (a prolonged but milder form of depression) and mild cognitive impairment. The erotomania was considered secondary: it was caused by Internet fraud against the background of another psychiatric disorder. The patient was prescribed antidepressants (sertraline) combined with low-dose risperidone, as well as supportive individual and group therapy.
The woman did not immediately accept the fact that she had been deceived; at first, erotomania persisted. However, after a month of treatment and cognitive-behavioral therapy, the dysthymia and anxiety went away, and the victim of online fraud realized everything. She was discharged from the hospital and recommended to continue treatment as an outpatient.
What is erotomania
Erotic or erotomanic delusion, also known as erotomania, delusion of love fascination, passion, Clerambault syndrome, is a relatively rare but persistent manifestation of delirium. It is based on the patient's false belief that another person, often of higher social or professional status, harbors romantic feelings for him or her, although there may be little or no contact between the "lovers".
The diagnosis is included in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11) and is considered a subtype of delusional disorder. If the condition persists for at least a month, it should be a reason to see a doctor and get diagnosed.
Erotomania was recognized as a type of mental disorder in the XX century, when in 1921 it was described by French psychiatrist Gaetan Gassian de Clerambault. Before that, in the early 18th century, erotomania was something like unrequited love. Today, it is believed that environmental, genetic, psychological and physiological factors, as well as the taking of certain medications, can lead to the development of erotomania in people predisposed to it.
"Due to the active development of online communication and rapid technological progress, it can be assumed that "romantic deceptions" will occur more frequently. In particular, the use of chatbots based on artificial intelligence breaks down language barriers, making deception easier, because romantic communication becomes possible even when the attacker does not speak the victim's native language," the report's authors warned. They called for monitoring how people with mental disorders who are prone to developing erotomanic delusions behave online to protect them from romantic scams.