American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

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Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady

Received: 07 May 2019    Accepted: 06 June 2019    Published: 20 June 2019
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Abstract

BACKGROUND-The delusion of pregnancy is a condition where the person strongly believes that he/she is pregnant in spite of providing enough evidence to the contrary. Though previously it was considered rare, the number of such cases are gradually increasing in developing countries but the literature regarding this is very meagre in India particularly in the North-East. METHOD - In this article we report the unique case of a 60yrs old woman from rural Assam who developed delusion of pregnancy following her menopause thirteen years back, which has been continuing ever since. RESULT- A 60ys old woman presented in the OPD of Tertiary Care Hospital with feelings of movement of foetus in her womb. This was also associated with tremulousness of whole body, burning sensation of both lower limbs, palpitation, irritability and disturbed sleep for 13yrs with episodic exacerbation currently increased for 4-5months. She was a housewife, completed her family and lived with her husband and three children. She was apparently well 13yrs back when following her menopause at age 42yrs she started to doubt if she is pregnant or not. Multiple gynaecologists’ opinion was taken but that did not convince her and she continued to believe she was pregnant and felt the movement of the baby inside her womb. CONCLUSION - Although these kinds of patient visit the obstetrician first but historically and clinically this type of delusion of pregnancy is clearly different from the phenomenon of pseudocyesis. Hence treatment approach of both are also different. We need further research to explore this rarely reported phenomenon.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11
Published in American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (Volume 7, Issue 2, June 2019)
Page(s) 30-32
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Delusion, Delusion of Pregnancy, Pseudocyesis, Elderly Woman, Postmenopausal, Shrunken Foetus, Antipsychotics

References
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[3] Viswanath B, Kamath A, Goswami K, Taksal A, Thippeswamy H, Chaturvedi SK. Delusion of paternity. Aust N Z J Psychiatr. 2012; 46: 175.
[4] Manoj PN, John JP, Gandhi A, Kewalramani M, Murthy P, Chaturvedi SK, et al. Delusion of test-tube pregnancy in a sexually abused girl. Psychopathology. 2004; 37: 152–4.
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[7] Camus V, Schmitt L, Foulon C, Lima CA, Wertheimer J. Pregnancy delusions in elderly depressed women: a clinical feature of Cotard’s syndrome? Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 1995; 10: 1071–3.
[8] Cipriani G, Di Fiorino M. Delusion of pregnancy: an unusual symptom in the context of dementia. Am J Alzheimer Dis 2015; 30: 341–5.
[9] Patricia Guilfoyle, Helen O’Brien, Shaun T. O’Keeffe, Delusions of pregnancy in older women;a case series, Age and Ageing, Volume 44, Issue 6, November 2015, Pages 1058-1061.
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[18] Cramer B. Delusion of pregnancy in a girl with drug-induced lactation. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1971 Jan; 127 (7): 960-3.
[19] Chengappa KNR, Steingard S, Brar JS, Keshavan MS. Delusions of pregnancy in men. British Journal of Psychiatry. Cambridge University Press; 1989; 155 (3): 422–3.
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Author Information
  • Department of Psychiatry, Silchar Medical College, Silchar, India

  • Department of Psychiatry, Silchar Medical College, Silchar, India

  • Department of Psychiatry, Silchar Medical College, Silchar, India

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    Madhurima Khasnobis, Prosenjit Ghosh, Hasina Anjuman Choudhury. (2019). Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 7(2), 30-32. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11

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    Madhurima Khasnobis; Prosenjit Ghosh; Hasina Anjuman Choudhury. Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady. Am. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 2019, 7(2), 30-32. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11

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    AMA Style

    Madhurima Khasnobis, Prosenjit Ghosh, Hasina Anjuman Choudhury. Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady. Am J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2019;7(2):30-32. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11,
      author = {Madhurima Khasnobis and Prosenjit Ghosh and Hasina Anjuman Choudhury},
      title = {Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady},
      journal = {American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience},
      volume = {7},
      number = {2},
      pages = {30-32},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajpn.20190702.11},
      abstract = {BACKGROUND-The delusion of pregnancy is a condition where the person strongly believes that he/she is pregnant in spite of providing enough evidence to the contrary. Though previously it was considered rare, the number of such cases are gradually increasing in developing countries but the literature regarding this is very meagre in India particularly in the North-East. METHOD - In this article we report the unique case of a 60yrs old woman from rural Assam who developed delusion of pregnancy following her menopause thirteen years back, which has been continuing ever since. RESULT- A 60ys old woman presented in the OPD of Tertiary Care Hospital with feelings of movement of foetus in her womb. This was also associated with tremulousness of whole body, burning sensation of both lower limbs, palpitation, irritability and disturbed sleep for 13yrs with episodic exacerbation currently increased for 4-5months. She was a housewife, completed her family and lived with her husband and three children. She was apparently well 13yrs back when following her menopause at age 42yrs she started to doubt if she is pregnant or not. Multiple gynaecologists’ opinion was taken but that did not convince her and she continued to believe she was pregnant and felt the movement of the baby inside her womb. CONCLUSION - Although these kinds of patient visit the obstetrician first but historically and clinically this type of delusion of pregnancy is clearly different from the phenomenon of pseudocyesis. Hence treatment approach of both are also different. We need further research to explore this rarely reported phenomenon.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Delusion of Pregnancy in a 60 Years Old Lady
    AU  - Madhurima Khasnobis
    AU  - Prosenjit Ghosh
    AU  - Hasina Anjuman Choudhury
    Y1  - 2019/06/20
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11
    T2  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    JF  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    JO  - American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
    SP  - 30
    EP  - 32
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-426X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20190702.11
    AB  - BACKGROUND-The delusion of pregnancy is a condition where the person strongly believes that he/she is pregnant in spite of providing enough evidence to the contrary. Though previously it was considered rare, the number of such cases are gradually increasing in developing countries but the literature regarding this is very meagre in India particularly in the North-East. METHOD - In this article we report the unique case of a 60yrs old woman from rural Assam who developed delusion of pregnancy following her menopause thirteen years back, which has been continuing ever since. RESULT- A 60ys old woman presented in the OPD of Tertiary Care Hospital with feelings of movement of foetus in her womb. This was also associated with tremulousness of whole body, burning sensation of both lower limbs, palpitation, irritability and disturbed sleep for 13yrs with episodic exacerbation currently increased for 4-5months. She was a housewife, completed her family and lived with her husband and three children. She was apparently well 13yrs back when following her menopause at age 42yrs she started to doubt if she is pregnant or not. Multiple gynaecologists’ opinion was taken but that did not convince her and she continued to believe she was pregnant and felt the movement of the baby inside her womb. CONCLUSION - Although these kinds of patient visit the obstetrician first but historically and clinically this type of delusion of pregnancy is clearly different from the phenomenon of pseudocyesis. Hence treatment approach of both are also different. We need further research to explore this rarely reported phenomenon.
    VL  - 7
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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