Do you know almost everything about bipolar disorder and depression and define hypomania in three notes? It's time to study rare symptoms! We talk about the emergence of worlds, Alice's syndrome in Wonderland, delusional hermaphroditism and other amazing mental states.
The emergence of worlds
The emergence of worlds from non-objective feelings is characteristic of the early stages of schizophrenia, occurs with poisoning (for example, opium), is often recorded at the moment before an epileptic seizure. With schizophrenic personality transformation, patients “lose contact” with things, feel “distant” and alien: “What is there in the world? I no longer belong to him."
At the same time, people experience a sense of crystal clarity - but it is meaningless, so they cannot share their "discovery" with others.
Man believes that he has grasped the deepest of meanings: timelessness, peace, God, death. But when this state passes, he can no longer reproduce or describe his experiences - after all, he had a deception of feelings.
The number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia worldwide exceeds 21 million.
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The syndrome of the emergence of worlds can be seen in the film "Dragonfly" (2002). After the tragic death of the hero's wife, mysterious signs and frightening messages begin to haunt, he feels that he knows something that other people do not know about, and blindly believes his feelings.
Fatal familial insomnia
Fatal familial insomnia is a dangerous, fatal disorder. It occurs after 30 years, more often - closer to 50.
The patient cannot sleep. At first, he falls into short-term nightmares, after which he comes to himself even more overwhelmed. Then hallucinations are added to the nocturnal panic attacks. Insomnia is dangerous - it can provoke psychotic states, and if it does not stop within a year, then there is a risk of death.
There is no cure for this disease. Such insomnia is transmitted genetically, and there are about 40 families with the corresponding genes in the world. She is well shown in the film Insomnia (2018), in which a theater troupe comes to rehearse the play in a mental hospital and stops sleeping.
Sense of presence syndrome
The syndrome of the sense of presence (German: Anwesenheit) is also called "deception of awareness" (according to A. V. Snezhnevsky).
This disorder is characterized by a sense of the presence of an outsider in the immediate vicinity of the patient. As a rule, such conditions arise with a clear consciousness, when the patient is alone at home or in another room, less often in an open space. He senses the presence of an unfamiliar person or creature that looks like a ghost, but he cannot be seen or heard.
This syndrome is considered a rare disorder, although there is usually no precise data on its prevalence.
Anwesenheit occurs not only in patients with schizophrenia, but also in a number of other psychosis: temporal lobe epilepsy, reactive states after bereavement, intoxication, sleep deprivation, in mentally healthy individuals exposed to prolonged stress, as well as in therapy with ergot alkaloids (lisuride, pergolide) …
"Echoes" of the presence syndrome can be found in fiction, for example in "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde, and in films, in such films as "Ghost" (1990), "Ghosts" (2007), and in the film "Others" (2001) with an inverted plot, the spirits themselves suffer from this disorder.
Intermetamorphosis syndrome
With intermetamorphosis syndrome, a person is confident that his mental essence and appearance have been changed. Some “third parties” can “coerce” the patient to complete physical and moral transformation, and there is always a system of evidence of transformation, and the disorder itself can last for years.
Intermetamorphosis syndrome in its typical manifestations is shown in the movie "Freaky Friday" and in all other motion pictures about body exchange.
There is a syndrome of delusional hermaphroditism, related to intermetamorphosis, when a person believes that, for example, a former girlfriend lives inside him, who eats his food, drinks his juices and talks to him.
The patient does not think that he himself has changed - physically or psychologically. It's just that inside his bodily shell, besides him, there is another personality, a female. Delusional hermaphroditism is a popular theme in romantic comedies such as Love-Carrot (2007), where Gosha Kutsenko expressively portrays his inner woman, acting out a rich set of gender stereotypes.
Delusional Parasitosis Syndrome
Ekbom Syndrome (also known as Delusional Parasitosis Syndrome) is named after a Swedish neurologist who described it in 1937. In the special literature, it is found under the erroneous designations "zoophobia", "parasitophobia", "acarophobia", it can also be called "dermatozoal delirium". It should not be confused with Willisia-Ekbom disease in neurology (restless legs syndrome).
A person with this disorder is convinced that they are infected with small macroscopic skin parasites - worms, insects, arthropods. Visual hallucinations, false memories are also possible. Patients give a detailed account of their "disease", showing areas of the "affected" skin.
People suffering from dermatozoal delirium are sure that their whole body is teeming with living organisms, insects and various creatures. This disorder occurs in 30-60% of patients in dermatological hospitals.
Ekbom's Syndrome is featured in the horror comedy film Slug. One of the heroes is infected by a vile alien creature and prepares a biological invasion. Then the parasites crawl into the bodies of other earthlings and settle in them, turning people into zombies. A whole line of horror culture dedicated to the alien “other” seems to be inspired by this particular disorder.
Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Alice in Wonderland syndrome is named after the heroine of Lewis Carroll: it is characterized by impaired perception of her body, which may seem very small to the patient or, conversely, gigantic, and sometimes disproportionate. For example, the torso reaches 100 meters, the legs extend to the center of the earth, and the head becomes the size of an apple.
There are no data on the prevalence of the syndrome in the general population, although clinical studies show that such a deviation occurs in 15% of patients with migraine. About 70 articles have been published on Alice's syndrome, half of them have been published in the last 10 years. In total, only 169 cases of its manifestation are known: 55.6% of "alis" were men, the average age of patients was 15.5 years. According to the results of some studies, up to 6% of people experience separate symptoms of this syndrome - micropsia and macropsia - during their lifetime.
40% of patients had one symptom of the disorder, 33% - 2, 10% - 3, 17% - 4. It is also known that the presence of one symptom lowers the threshold of another.
Autosarcophagia
Autosarcophagia is a severe and dangerous disorder characterized by an irresistible urge to eat oneself, one's own flesh.
The prevalence of autosarcophagia among humans has not been identified, but more than 3,000 animal species eat their own kind. In 2016, six cases of cannibalism were registered on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The syndrome in its most extreme and vivid manifestations can be enjoyed in the film "The One Who Wants to Survive", which is based on the story of Stephen King, written in the form of the diary of surgeon Richard Pine Pinzetti. He smuggled large quantities of heroin, but was shipwrecked and dumped on a lonely deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. The hero falls ill with gangrene and amputates his foot, using a drug as an anesthetic. Dying of hunger, Richard decides to eat the severed leg. As a result, he uses heroin and, using the skills of a surgeon, gradually cuts off various parts of the body from himself, diversifying his diet in such an extravagant way.
Multiple personality syndrome
Dissociative disorder makes a person feel as if there are many personalities in their body.
People with this deviation suddenly take on the role of someone else - a mythical character, their ancestor, a spirit, and even an animal: one person with a dissociative disorder suddenly began to growl like a wild beast, and this was interrupted by profuse vomiting.
In most cases, the patient is not able to remember what he did when he was in a “different image”.
A vivid example of frustration can be seen in the films "Sybil", "Exorcism", "The Exorcist", "Six Demons of Emily Rose" - many of them, as the creators assure, are even "based on real events." In each picture, the hero suddenly begins to behave extremely strangely - to speak different languages or crawl along the walls and ceiling. Usually these people themselves are mortally frightened and beg for help - relatives and friends, as a rule, invite priests who perform the exorcism ritual.
From 0.5 to 5% of people suffer from dissociative disorders, and there are three times more women with this syndrome than men.
Catatonic syndrome
Catatonic syndrome is a complex of disorders characterized by agitation or stupor. In the first case, a person moves chaotically, laughs, grimaces, repeats gestures, facial expressions, and the words of the people around him. His behavior, as a rule, is inconsistent, speech is fast and incoherent, the patient often gives meaningless answers to questions addressed to him. So, if such a person is asked about health, he can say: "Today is good weather, sunshine, birds …"
With a stupor, the patient seems to freeze in one position. For example, when the doctor lifts his head, it does not tip back onto the pillow.
A person may not respond to appeals to him, although he is conscious. If the doctor asks to perform some action, the patient performs the exact opposite. For example, the doctor says, “Please lie down on the bed,” and the patient sits down or gets up.
The prevalence of catatonic syndrome among psychiatric patients, according to various studies, ranges from 7.6 to 38%.
The stupor is shown in the film A Dangerous Method, which tells about the relationship between Freud, Jung and Sabine Spielrein. The heroine's mental disorder arose as a result of violence against her and manifested itself in the form of immobility. Successful psychoanalyst Carl Jung healed the hysterical Sabina with a good flogging.
Hebephrenic syndrome
Hebephrenic syndrome is characterized by foolishness, unreasonable laughter, childishness, infantilism, inappropriate in a particular setting. One can suspect in such a diagnosis the beloved heroes of "Dumb and Dumber" - Harry and Lloyd. The incidence of hebephrenic syndrome is 13% in developed countries and 4% in developing countries.