Xenomelia: Profile of a man with intense desire to amputate a healthy limb
Current Psychiatry. 2018 August;17(8):34-36,41-43
August 6, 2018|Psychiatry
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This case report helps shed more light on this debilitating, often secretive condition.
Bottom Line
Individuals with xenomelia have the persistent belief that one or more of their limbs does not belong to their body but is an alien appendage that should be removed. Patients with this condition may resort to self-amputation or self-mutilation that requires subsequent surgical amputation. Xenomelia may be related to anomalous brain development, with a lack of neural representation of a limb in the right parietal lobe.
Related Resources
- Hilti LM, Hänggi J, Vitacco DA, et al. The desire for healthy limb amputation: structural brain correlates and clinical features of xenomelia. Brain. 2013;136(pt 1):318-329.
- Brugger P, Lenggenhager B, Giummarra MJ. Xenomelia: a social neuroscience view of altered bodily self-consciousness. Front Psychol. 2013;4:204. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00204.
