HARPREET S. DUGGAL etal. to him and that she was knowing his thoughts any symptoms when he was exposed to the through the Internet. He was, however, ignorant Internet. Simultaneously, he was made to consider about the ways to access the Internet and equated an alternative explanation that the voices and other the computer to the Internet and had never before phenomena were due to illness (Kingdon & seen anyone operating the Internet. Turkington, 1994). The patient was then lead to The patient was taken for belief modification shape his own conclusion based on these by reality testing using collaborative empiricism, interventions. Each session was for 20-40 the protocol being modified form Chadwick & Lowe minutes, done weekly and planned over a month. (1990). In addition, belief modification by On subsequent interviews the conviction of his normalizing rationale of Kingdon and Turkington Internet-related belief steadily decreased and (1994) was also used. Briefly, the patient was first within two weeks he was totally free from this interviewed in a preliminary session during which delusion (the conviction dropping from 100% to the delusional belief about the Internet was defined. 0%) but he still had doubts about the voices being Following this, over a two-week period his baseline a manifestation of illness. He never developed degree of conviction was measured as percentage delusion about the Internet over a two-month follow rating of conviction. This was 100% before starting up. the CT and while the patient was on a constant dose of 250 mg per day of clozapine. DISCUSSION Subsequently, the patient was taken for verbal challenge of the evidences supporting his Internet-related delusions have engendered delusional belief about the Internet in a non- attention only in recent times. A PubMed search confrontational manner pointing out the using the keywords 'Internet delusion' yielded five inconsistency and irrationality in his belief such previous reports (Tan et al., 1997; Catalano (Chadwick & Lowe, 1991; Alfrod & Beck, 1994) et al., 1999; Catalano & Catalano, 2000; Podoll which included highlighting the fact that his sister- et al., 2000; Kobayashi et al., 2001). However, to in-law never possessed a computer in the first our knowledge this is the first case where cognitive place. Besides this he was explained what the therapy was tried and was also successful. Internet meant and how it functioned and what Internet delusions have been described to develop equipment was required to access the Internet. de novo in healthy individuals without a psychiatric The therapist (first author) and the patient then disorder (Catalano et al., 1999; Catalano & collaboratively devised an experiment to test the Catalano,2000) and also in patients with reality of the larter's delusional belief. In this stage, schizophrenia (Tan etal., 1997; Podoll etal, 2000) the patient was given a live demonstration about and schizoaffective disorder (Kobayashi et al., the working of the Internet. At the same time the 2001). The peculiarity of our patient and some of patient was asked to report whether on being the patients described earlier (Catalano et al., exposed to the computer he felt like crying or 1999; Kobayashi et al., 2001) was that they had laughing or his thoughts were being interfered with no prior technical knowledge of or exposure to or if he was hearing voices from the computer. the Internet. The patient and the therapist had agreed in advance The reasons why communication media that this was a genuine test of the belief and failure such as radio, television and now the Internet are to hear any voices and experience the feelings of so easily incorporated into the delusional being controlled when exposed to the Internet systems of patients are only speculative. One would mean that the patient's belief was not true. hypothesis is the semblance of these modes of Experiments as this one have been used communication, which do not have an intervening previously to modify delusions (Chadwick & Lowe, tangible media, to the psychopathological 1990). As expected, the patient did not experience symptoms such as thought broadcasting 294