Clinical Lycanthropy. In the largest modern collection of cases of lycanthropy, Keck and colleagues uncovered the records of 12 American patients who had reported that they were a particular animal and had behaved in a manner reminiscent of that animal. Six patients were manic, 2 were depressed, 2 had schizophrenia, one had borderline personality disorder and one received the diagnosis of atypical psychosis. Two patients, one who claimed to be a Bengal Tiger and one who hopped around a ward like a rabbit admitted that their behaviour was under voluntary control after confrontation by their psychiatrists and were judged to have a factitious element to their accompanying psychiatric disorder. The lycanthropic behaviour was quite varied and 10 patients identified themselves as specific animals, most commonly wolves, dogs or cats. One case who identified himself as a gerbil had raised these animals as pets for many years. One patient believed himself to be a cat for more than 13 years but in all other cases the behaviour was transient and responded to antipsychotic medication. Symptoms associated with lycanthropy can occur in the absence of a full blown syndrome, as in the case reported by Buchanan of a depressed 60-year-old divorcee who barked, grimaced and growled but did not believe that she was transformed into an animal.
From T. A. Fahy, Lycanthropy: A Review, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 82, 1, (1989): 37-9.
See also P. E. Keck et al., Lycanthropy: Alive and Well in the Twentieth Century, Psychol Med 18 (1988): 113-20.