Delusions Related to Technology

Delusions related to Technology

Delusions are known to be influenced by the popular media, the sociopolitical undercurrents and also by the scientific innovations. Internet is one such modern communication tool, which can easily be incorporated into the delusional system of patients by virtue of its semblance to some psychopathological phenomena. We will describe patients with paranoid schizophrenia who developed a delusion about the Internet controlling him but showed a good response to cognitive therapy.

aetiology in one case, and knowledge of the internet seemed to constrain the type of delusion formed in two others. The presence of an internet related delusion in the final case was used to frame a successful clinical intervention based on the ‘collaborative empiricism’ method, using cognitive behavioural therapy and collaborative use of the internet to resolve the delusional belief.

Case 1

A 31-year-old woman, with a previous diagnosis of bipolar (mood) disorder, was admitted to hospital after being found in the street in a distressed state. On admission, she recounted how she first felt unwell six weeks earlier and became suspicious when her credit card was refused in a shop, leading to a sense of unease (worry, restless or anxiety) and increasingly intrusive (disturbing) thoughts. Subsequently, while examining the packaging of a breath freshening product she noticed the ingredient ‘phenylalanine’, which she proceeded to use as a search term on an internet search engine. Her search resulted in finding a webpage, containing many numbers, which outlined experimental studies on the chemical. Using the most personally-significant numbers from the initial page as search terms she further found a website explaining an Aramaic system for divining special meaning from numbers. She suspected this was significant and came to believe that she had found secret information about the ‘Al-Queda’ terrorist network. During the following days she believed that, because of her discovery of terrorist secrets, her computer and telephone had been tapped, to monitor her internet activity and phone calls, and she was being bugged by microphones and concealed cameras. She was subsequently diagnosed as having a manic episode with psychotic symptoms. She has extensive experience with using the internet over the previous ten years, and when asked how the internet worked replied “by linking computers all over the world using energy and digital technology”.

Case 2

A 42-year-old man had consulted his GP five weeks earlier for low mood and suspiciousness although he had no previous contact with mental health services. At interview he claimed that the websites of several international companies had a “darker side” and hidden sections that were being used by a secret organization. He believed the