[4] The explanations for the inauthenticity of the misidentified people are associated with the individual experiencing the delusions' cultural background.
[4] The issue of violent and aggressive behavior within this set of syndromes continues to play an important role in the discussion of criminal responsibility and risk assessment.
[3][6][9] These theories typically involve a psychotic resolution towards an individual's feelings of intense ambivalence about the misidentified object.
[3][4] Neuropsychological findings suggest that symptoms are produced in some aspect by brain dysfunction or damage, specifically in the right hemisphere.
[3][8][6] Lesions in the right frontal lobe and adjacent areas have been found through neuroimaging in case reports of intermetamorphosis.
Impaired connectivity or dysconnectivity between the right fusiform and right parahippocampal areas and the frontal lobes and the right temporolimbic regions have also been seen in case reports of this syndrome, which are thought to be implicated in deficits in face recognition, visual memory recall, and identification processes.
[3] Depersonalization has also been postulated as a contributing factor to the development of intermetamorphosis; under conditions like the presence of a paranoid element, a charged emotional relationship to the principal misidentified person, and cerebral dysfunction, depersonalization and derealization symptoms may develop into a full delusional misidentification syndrome.
Some believe that misidentification is a symptom, and that the overlapping nature of these syndromes suggests that they are "states" associated with other psychiatric or neurological disorders, but that they're not diagnostic in themselves.
[5][6][7][4] As their name suggests, many professionals consider them syndromes, because misidentification appears to occur more often in association with certain symptoms, like depersonalization, derealization, and paranoia.
[3][7] Some that have been effective in case studies are clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, sulpiride, trifluoperazine, pimozide, haloperidol and carbamazepine.