Question about somatic delusions

[Anne]

Hi Dr. Adams. I had a question about somatic delusions and I hope that you could answer my question. If a person beleives that they are mentally retarded, for a long amount of time,and they beleive that everyone around them (family, friends, etc.) has always known that they were but could not tell the person, could you call that belief a somatic delusion? Would that indicate any kind of mental illness? Thank you very much Dr. Also, I read in a book Genome by Matt Ridley on page 167 that if a person with OCD could reduce the amount of seratonin they have, that that would help releive their symptoms. What do you think about that? Thank you very much for your help, Sincerely Anne

[Dr. Adams]

Strictly speaking a somatic delusion is a false perception of a physical part or function. Therefore, a person falsely believing that they are retarded and this is being witheld from them is more likely a delusional belief system of a persecutory type. Thus, the individual believes that others are "harming" them by shielding them from an imagined reality that they are mentally retarded. It would have to interfere with occupational and social functioning to be a mental disorder. Was your question academic or do you know of such a case?

The amount of available serotonin can be increased by any of the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) used for depression (Eg. Prozac, Zoloft, etc). As you likely know, the action of these agents is essentially to "waste" less serotonin and make more available to the brain.

[RanRoc]

Ditto to the good Doctor's response. What would be a possible treatment if it does appear to be a disorder? Separation from those who maintain the delusional belief system (like in shared psychotic disorder)?
-RY

[Dr. Adams]

You raise an important point. In order for the person to continue the belief, he/she must have an environment (people) who are responding to the false belief.

While not truly a shared delusional disorder, it does, indeed, have some of the same characteristics.