54-year-old Belgium woman who was found by her brother in her garden clucking and crowing like a rooster — a condition called zoanthropy. The woman was found by her brother in her garden clucking like a chicken – Scientists from Belgium have said she could actually have been suffering from a mental health disorder linked to depression.
The 54-year-old woman had a stable job in a pharmacy and no history of drug or alcohol abuse before the sudden episode – She told doctors she thought she was a chicken and described feeling a new sensation in her legs .
It was only when she suffered a seizure that she appeared to snap out of it While most people who suffer from depression will have common symptoms, such as sadness, fatigue and disinterest, an exceedingly rare few could lose their humanity completely — by assuming the identity of an animal.
The woman told doctors she thought she was a chicken and described feeling a new sensation in her legs.A report by The Guardian showed researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium also referred to the condition as the delusion of believing oneself is not human, but an animal.
The married woman whose name was not revealed had a stable job in a pharmacy in Belgium and no history of drug or alcohol abuse before the sudden episode. The report further showed her brother found her in her garden blowing out her cheeks and crowing like a rooster before he decided to take her to hospital.
While there, she told doctors she thought she was a chicken and described feeling a new sensation in her legs. It was only when she suffered a seizure that she appeared to snap out of it. After the seizure, she had little memory of acting like a chicken and was embarrassed when her family told her what had happened.
The woman, who had been suffering from depression since the death of a family member, managed to return to her job a year later.
Such cases of zoanthropy, have gone under-reported, said the researchers from a university in the Flemish city in in the Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie medical journal. ‘Clinical zoanthropy, or the conviction of having turned into an animal, is a rare delusion,’ researchers wrote.
‘This delusion can occur with an underlying psychiatric disorder, but it can also be secondary to structural or functional disorders of the brain,” added the researchers. Scientists said patients find it difficult to explain their thoughts. There have been 56 examples of the illness in medical and historical literature between 1850 and 2012.
The patients have described thinking they are a dog, lion, tiger, hyena, shark, crocodile, frog, bovine, cat, goose, rhinoceros, rabbit, horse, snake, bird, wild boar, gerbil and a bee.
The condition has been linked to underlying psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, psychotic depression and bipolar mood disorder. Symptoms can typically last from one hour to several decades with delusions more common in rural and non-industrial areas.
Zoanthropy is a mental disorder in which one believes oneself to be an animal. The person believes himself changed into an animal and acts like one. Its a form of madness involving the delusion of being an animal, with correspondingly altered behaviour.
