Cotard's Syndrome: People Who Think They're Dead

bobloblaw · Oct 30, 2013

I would have posted this in the Walking Dead thread but I think it's appropriate for Halloween. Hopefully no one here has used Zovirax.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/10/28/herpes-drug-linked-to-rare-walking-dead-disease/

Swedish doctors have found that a medication used to treat herpes may be connected to an ailment that makes some patients think they’ve turned into the “walking dead.”

Cotard’s syndrome, referred to by some as Walking Corpse syndrome, causes the nihilistic delusion that you no longer exist, have lost your internal organs or are putrefying. Luckily, the mental disorder is uncommon, and since 1880 only 110 cases have been reported worldwide. Sufferers have been likened in the popular press to real-life zombies, although there’s nothing supernatural about the ailment.

Although the symptoms are pretty obvious, the underlying cause of the disease has yet to be understood. Some have linked it to depression, others to bipolar disorder. Most recently, two Swedish doctors say they see a connection between Cotard’s syndrome and a herpes medicine.

“Together with my colleague Thomas Linden, I’ve found almost ten examples of Cotard’s syndrome in patients treated with a herpes medicine called aciclovir,” said Anders Hellden, one of the doctors behind the discovery. Hellden said that he and Linden are readying an article about their findings.The news was reported in the Swedish and Norwegian media last week. Hellden was one of the co-authors of a 2007 paper in the medical journal BMJ that reported on “two cases of Cotard’s syndrome that occurred as an adverse drug reaction to aciclovir and its prodrug valaciclovir.” The paper didn’t draw much attention then, but now that the doctors have found additional cases, Hellden says their observations have more support and are accordingly drawing more interest.

Hellden works in pharmacology research in Stockholm at Karolinska hospital, widely considered Sweden’s most respected hospital. While in the midst of a side effects study of aciclovir, he noticed reports of patients claiming they were not alive, although everyone around them could see that they were. One patient had said that her “body felt unfamiliar, and she felt shut off from the surrounding world. She could barely walk, cried out and appeared terrified; another was “screaming and asking if he was dead.” Both had symptoms of Cotard’s syndrome, and doctors “found no cause to account for their sense of being dead other than the (herpes drug) treatment.”

“This is especially interesting because Cotard’s syndrome has never been reported as a drug reaction,” Hellden said.

Hellden believes that if physicians are able to identify the cause of the disease, they may also be able to work towards a cure.

“Our findings may be an important contribution to our understanding of Cotard’s syndrome in the future,” Hellden said.

Although rare, contemporary examples of Cotard’s syndrome can be found in recent medical literature. In 2008, a 53-year old New York lady complained that she was dead and smelled like rotten flesh. A year later, Belgian doctors treated an 88-year old man who came to the hospital because he “knew” he was dead and was upset about not having been buried. A 46-year old woman, who claimed she hadn’t eaten nor gone to the bathroom in months because all her organs had rotted, was treated by the same doctors. None of these cases was connected in the reports about them to the use of aciclovir.

The only non-prescription drug in the U.S. containing aciclovir, aka acyclovir, is the cold sore cream Zovirax, and GlaxoSmithKline, the company that produces it, says there is no risk of developing Cotard’s syndrome after using it.

“The use of Zovirax cream does not present a risk of developing Cotard’s syndrome to consumers as a very small amount of acyclovir is absorbed into the blood stream when the cream is applied directly on to the cold sore,” said Mary Ann Rhyne, director of U.S. External communication at GlaxoSmithKline.
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bobloblaw · Oct 30, 2013

Whoops! Meant to spoiler that. If anyone is interested in listening to the Science Friday podcast from NPR on the syndrome, here you go:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/10/25/2013/the-real-life-walking-dead.html

Xerobull · Oct 30, 2013

...they got the suffix right.

Ziggy · Oct 30, 2013

I think Ed Reed has this.

Yonkers · Oct 30, 2013

How weird. Thanks for sharing.

bobloblaw · Oct 30, 2013

It reminded me of this video:
[youtube]6gy5NGqbFlw[/youtube]

"I think we're dying... I think we're dead"
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hotballa · Oct 30, 2013

Xerobull said: ↑

...they got the suffix right.

Click to expand...

I lol'd

Dgn1 · Oct 30, 2013

This is terrible news for me, i loved herpes at dinner.

Jontro · Oct 30, 2013

Did they died?

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Cotard's Syndrome: People Who Think They're Dead

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Xerobull You son of a b!tch! I'm in!

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