Nude Photography: Abuse, Obsession, Delusion, and Finally Depression

In October 2011, a 43-year-old computer technician with a 6-year history of Parkinson’s disease was admitted to our inpatient service for reevaluation and therapeutic optimization. Although he already had been treated with short- and long-lasting dopaminergic drugs before his admission, he was experiencing increasing fluctuations of his symptoms, especially tremors of his upper extremities and freezing gait. To cope with these symptoms, he gradually increased his Parkinson medication arbitrarily. At approximately the same time, he started to haphazardly buy a large number (∼150) of cameras of various types because he abruptly conceived the idea of founding a camera museum. In addition, he contacted women willing to be paid to model for nude photography. He started a romantic relationship with one of these women.

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–Helge Müller, MD, Frauke Knossalla, MD, Lorenz Breuer, MD, Johannes Kornhuber, MD, PhD, Lars Marquardt, MD, DPhil

–This article originally appeared in the August 2012 issue of The American Journal of Medicine