Delusional Double Mourning: A Complication of Bereavement in Dementia

We describe two elderly patients with senile dementia who presented with the delusion that a parent had died within weeks of the actual death of a spouse. These fixed, systematized, and persistent beliefs do not correspond to the delusions of dementia or of the bereaved elderly that have been previously described. The phenomenology and implications of these "delusions of double mourning" are discussed.