One of the patients I had during my psch rotation was a guy who was completely convinced that a Dr. had implanted a microchip in his nose during an operation to correct a deviated nasal septum in the late 1980's. He thought the Dr. had conspired with the military and that they were using him as a "guinea pig" for a weapons program. He described the chip as a "broadcaster and reciever" of his thoughts with GPS capabilities. He would say that sometimes he could hear a little click and he would know that the chip had turned itself on. He would claim that the chip was drying his mouth out or "burning his testicles" with microwaves because they "liked to torment" him and "were devils". He would say that he thought the mcrochip could microwave him to death by completely drying him out. He kept insisting that we should set up a surgery to remove it and kept getting more and more frustrated telling us that if we didn't reomove it he was going to get a sharpened stick when he got home and pock it up his nose to try and disable or deactivate the chip. When I tried to talk him out of it saying things like there wasn't a technology advanced enough to convert brain waves into language he would say something about Pat Robertson telling him about it on tv and that he beleives what Pat Robertson says. Apparently the microchip implantation to "control people" is a pretty common delusion and they have internet sites where people who think they have one implanted talk about what to do about it. So one of the resident figures since this guy is going to believe no matter what that he has this microchip implanted in his nose that she will try ordering him some magnets from one of the sites that supposedly block the signals coming from the chip. So these magnets come in the mail and she give him to the guy. He balances the magnets on his nose and is happy for about 1 day with these magnets on his nose. Well there is this other patient in the ward who steels anything and everything that isn't nailed down. He went into the bathroom one day and stole the drain out and whenever anything turned up missing he would have it. So in the morning while the microchip guy was in the "day room" the guy that steals everyithing goes into the microchip guys room and steals his magnets. So the microchip guy comes and back and starts freaking out and raising hell and getting all paranoid. The funny thing is this guy seemed a little weird but other than his insisting upon the fact that he had a microchip in his nasal septum he seemed almost normal. We weren't sure whether he had delusional disorder or was a paranoid schizophrenic. In delusional disorder they are supposed to have a fixed false belief that is at least plausable and no other symptoms of psychosis. He didn't appear to have any other symptoms of psychosis but his delusion was so bizzare that it was questionable whether it could be considered plausable.
