Érotomanie (document en anglais)

Erotomania is a type of delusion in which the affected person believes that another person, usually a stranger or famous person, is in love with him or her. The illness often occurs during psychosis, especially in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar mania.

The term erotomania is often confused with "obsessive love", obsession with unrequited love, or hypersexuality (see nymphomania). Obsessive love is not erotomania by definition.

The syndrome of erotomania was first described in 1942 as psychose passionelle by G. G. de Clerambault, a French psychiatrist. This condition, also called de Clérambault’s syndrome, arises when the afflicted person, usually a woman, develops a delusional belief that a man is intensely in love with her. The man is usually older and of higher social status than the woman. Initially, he does not suspect her interest, and when he does become aware of it he does not want to reciprocate the interest. The love object is often an unattainable public figure, such as a politician, actor, singer, doctor, or priest.

We have two type of erotomania, the first is pure form in which the patient state alone and remain unchanged, don’t include idea of grandeur or persecution, no hallucination and clear conscience. Contrary to pure form, superadded form exist in association with other psychiatric states and often paranoid schizophrenia.

Incidence:

The incidence of Erotomania is not well known, and has not been yet established but it appears that this syndrome is not due a particular culture or society background. Many publications in different countries can prove it. The total number of existing cases in the scientific world literature is probably less than 100 which is not that much.

Nevertheless, as the interest about Erotomania appears to be rising in the scientist community, the case number will probably grow.

Treatment:

During years till now, many kinds of treatment have been tried for Erotomania. Certain used a treatment based on chemical substance, others used chemotherapy, electro-convulsive treatment or insight-oriented psychotherapy but they had no real effectiveness and the delusions always returned and remained resistant. Many scientists tried to get good results by looking for the best combination using those treatments, but none of them found significant change in their patient delusions.

They conclude that Erotomania patient may be dangerous for them self and their family. That is why they required prolonged hospitalization to protect the patient, the families and the community.

Etiology

Throughout history, there had been much disagreement between several authors, physicians or not, about the behavior of individuals in love or lover. Like many of delusional disorders, experts are not certain of their assumptions. For them the most obvious though is the emotional deprivation in childhood. 

- For some, this lack comes mainly from the father. 

- For others, the failure comes from the mother; the stalker is seeking a female component in the beloved. 

Some authors are also talking of schizophrenia-paranoia Erotomania.

Classification

Erotomania has no specific psychiatric classification.

Many modern authors consider this syndrome as a manifestation of paranoia. They argue that this syndrome is specific to the delusional context but are not a separate entity of psychiatric syndromes. It is rather for them a portion of a psychotic state.

They described this syndrome as “rare”, unclassifiable, collected and exotic syndrome. Despite all, this syndrome stays even so a nosological entity in its own right.

Case Report

We shall first describe a young woman who, after the death of her father,

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