Persistent psychogenic déjà vu: a case report

Journal of Medical Case Reports

Adam Zeman⁶  Emma Davies²  Nathan A Illman¹  Paige Ethridge⁴  Chris JA Moulin⁵  Christine E Wells³ 

[1] Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK;Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK;Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield SD10 2BQ, UK;University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada;Université de Bourgogne, LEAD - CNRS UMR 5022, Pôle AAFE, 11 Esplanade Erasme, 21000, DIJON, France;University of Exeter Medical School, St Luke’s Campus, Exeter EX11 1LU, UK

关键词: Recognition memory;    Déjà vu;    Anxiety;   

Others  :  1180939
DOI  :  10.1186/1752-1947-8-414

 received in 2014-06-18, accepted in 2014-10-23,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Introduction

Déjà vu is typically a transient mental state in which a novel experience feels highly familiar. Although extensively studied in relation to temporal lobe epilepsy as part of simple partial seizures, déjà vu has been less studied in other clinical populations. A recent review of temporal lobe epilepsy suggested a possible link between clinical levels of anxiety and debilitating déjà vu, indicating further research is required. Here, for the first time in the literature, we present a case study of a young man with anxiety and depersonalisation who reported experiencing persistent and debilitating déjà vu. This report therefore adds to the limited literature on the relationship between anxiety and déjà vu.

Case presentation

A 23-year-old White British man presented with a form of persistent déjà vu in 2010, approximately 3 years since symptom onset. He reported a history of anxiety and experiencing feelings of depersonalisation. Neurological assessment (electroencephalogram and magnetic resonance imaging) did not indicate any abnormalities. We assessed his recognition memory with a task used in patients with dementia who report similar experiences but lack awareness of their falseness.

Conclusions

Our case’s memory performance was more conservative than controls but did not indicate a memory deficit. Unlike other patients with chronic déjà vu (for example, in dementia), he is fully aware of the false nature of his déjà vu and this presumably leads to his intact recognition memory performance. We suggest that his persistent déjà vu is psychogenic and conclude that déjà vu should be further studied in psychiatric disorders.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Wells et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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