Health & Medicine
'Walking Corpse Syndrome': Man Who Believes He is Dead Diagnosed with Cotard's Syndrome
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: May 28, 2013 10:45 AM EDT
Zombies may not just be a thing in movies anymore, thanks to what scientists are calling the 'Walking Corpse Syndrome.'
It certainly sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it just so turns out that the rare health problem affected a British man, only identified as Graham. Reports indicate that when the man woke up nine years ago, he really believed that he was dead, despite that he was still breathing.
Doctors were certainly perplexed by his symptoms. However, they soon after diagnosed him with Cotard's Syndrome, which is also known as 'Walking Corpse Syndrome' because it makes people think they have turned into zombies. (Whaa?)
Graham still was skeptical regarding the problem, believing that he was brain-dead.
This condition is quite unusual. Though as Graham suffers from severe depression, health professionals believed his problemed stemmed from this.
Eight months later he told doctors that his brain had died, according to The Telegraph. Furthermore, Graham lost interest in eating, smoking, sleeping and other things because he truly believed he was dead.
It was only through months of therapy and treatment that life coaching was able to bring him back to a normal state of life.
Cotard's Syndrome is among the most rare diseases in the world and it is thought that it affects just few hundred people at any one time. It is linked to depression and comes in a variety of forms including some who feel that their limbs are no longer functioning.
Graham describes his problem, according to New Scientist magazine, discussing the doctors who referred him to neurologists Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter and Steven Laureys at the University of Liège in Belgium.
"I didn't feel pleasure in anything. I used to idolise my car, but I didn't go near it. All the things I was interested in went away," Graham said."I lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. There was no point in eating because I was dead. It was a waste of time speaking as I never had anything to say."
At one point, Graham admits that he found himself at a cemetery as it was the easiest thing to do.
"I just felt I might as well stay there. It was the closest I could get to death. The police would come and get me, though, and take me back home," he said, according to The Telegraph.
However, through brain scans, researchers were able to target the brain activity that caused his vegetative state.
Now, researchers note that he is on the road to recovery with the help of therapy, drugs and time.
"I don't feel that brain-dead any more. Things just feel a bit bizarre sometimes," Graham said, according to The Telegraph. "I'm not afraid of death. But that's not to do with what happened - we're all going to die sometime. I'm just lucky to be alive now."
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First Posted: May 28, 2013 10:45 AM EDT
Zombies may not just be a thing in movies anymore, thanks to what scientists are calling the 'Walking Corpse Syndrome.'
It certainly sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it just so turns out that the rare health problem affected a British man, only identified as Graham. Reports indicate that when the man woke up nine years ago, he really believed that he was dead, despite that he was still breathing.
Doctors were certainly perplexed by his symptoms. However, they soon after diagnosed him with Cotard's Syndrome, which is also known as 'Walking Corpse Syndrome' because it makes people think they have turned into zombies. (Whaa?)
Graham still was skeptical regarding the problem, believing that he was brain-dead.
This condition is quite unusual. Though as Graham suffers from severe depression, health professionals believed his problemed stemmed from this.
Eight months later he told doctors that his brain had died, according to The Telegraph. Furthermore, Graham lost interest in eating, smoking, sleeping and other things because he truly believed he was dead.
It was only through months of therapy and treatment that life coaching was able to bring him back to a normal state of life.
Cotard's Syndrome is among the most rare diseases in the world and it is thought that it affects just few hundred people at any one time. It is linked to depression and comes in a variety of forms including some who feel that their limbs are no longer functioning.
Graham describes his problem, according to New Scientist magazine, discussing the doctors who referred him to neurologists Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter and Steven Laureys at the University of Liège in Belgium.
"I didn't feel pleasure in anything. I used to idolise my car, but I didn't go near it. All the things I was interested in went away," Graham said."I lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. There was no point in eating because I was dead. It was a waste of time speaking as I never had anything to say."
At one point, Graham admits that he found himself at a cemetery as it was the easiest thing to do.
"I just felt I might as well stay there. It was the closest I could get to death. The police would come and get me, though, and take me back home," he said, according to The Telegraph.
However, through brain scans, researchers were able to target the brain activity that caused his vegetative state.
Now, researchers note that he is on the road to recovery with the help of therapy, drugs and time.
"I don't feel that brain-dead any more. Things just feel a bit bizarre sometimes," Graham said, according to The Telegraph. "I'm not afraid of death. But that's not to do with what happened - we're all going to die sometime. I'm just lucky to be alive now."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone