Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T12:37:47.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Charles Bonnet Syndrome associated with vascular pathology – a classical presentation with a very atypical course

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Clive G Ballard
Affiliation:
Walsgrave Hospital, Clifford Bridge Road, Coventry CV2 2DX, England
Ramalingam N Chithiramohan
Affiliation:
West Midlands
Sumithra Handy
Affiliation:
Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry

Abstract

We present a case of the Charles Bonnet syndrome the onset of which appears to have been associated with vascular pathology. The syndrome typically involves the appearance of mute, colourful and pleasing visual images with the retention of insight into their hallucinatory nature. However, the case progressed in a very atypical way and a system of paranoid delusions developed around the visual hallucinations. The syndrome is reviewed and the possible reasons for the atypical course discussed.

Type
Clinical and Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Bonnet, CH. Essai analytique sur les facultes de l'ame; vol 2. 2nd ed.Google Scholar
2. (Naville quoted by) Morsier, G. Le syndrome de Charles Bonnet – hallucinations visuelles des viellards sans deficience mentale. Ann Med Psychol 1967; 2: 677702.Google Scholar
3.Morsier, G. Les hallucinations. Rev oto-neuro-opthalm 1938; 16: 244352.Google Scholar
4.Berrios, GE, Brook, P. Visual hallucinations and sensory delusions in the elderly. Br J Psychiatry 1984; 144: 662664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Damas-Mora, J, Skelton-Robinson, M, Jenner, FA. The Charles Bonnet syndrome in perspective. Psychol Med 1982; 12: 221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Thompson, P, Blessed, G. Correlation between the 37 item mental test score and the abbreviated 10 item mental test score by psychiatric day patients. Br J Psychiatry 1987; 151: 206209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Price, J, Whitlock, FA, Hall, RJ. The psychiatry of vertebrobasilar insufficiency with report of a case. Psychiatry Clin (Basel) 1983; 16: 2544.Google ScholarPubMed
8.Williams, D, Wilson, T G. The diagnosis of major and minor syndromes of basilar insufficiency. Brain 1962; 85: 741744.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Kay, DWK, Roth, W. Environmental and hereditary factors in the schizophrenias of old age (“late paraphrenia”) and their bearing on the general problem of causation of schizophrenia. Journal of Mental Science 1961; 107: 649686.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Pond, DA. Psychiatric aspects of epilepsy. Journal of the Indian Medical Profession 1957; 3: 14411451.Google Scholar
11.Berrios, GE, Brook, P. The Charles Bonnet syndrome and the problem of visual perception disorders in the elderly. Age and Ageing 1982; 11: 1723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Norton-Wilson, L, Munir, M. Visual perceptual disorders resembling the Charles Bonnet syndrome. A study of 434 consecutive patients referred to a psychogeriatric unit. Family Practice 1987; 4: 2731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar