تجربه آشناپنداری در بیماران مبتلا به اسکیزوفرنی

To investigate whether déjà vu experiences are psychopathologic phenomena, we studied the frequency and characteristics of déjà vu experiences in patients with schizophrenia. One hundred thirteen patients with schizophrenia and 386 nonclinical control subjects were evaluated with the Inventory of Déjà vu Experiences Assessment. The frequency and features of déjà vu experiences were compared between the 2 groups. The patients with schizophrenia had déjà vu experiences less frequently (53.1%) than did the nonclinical subjects (76.2%). The frequency of déjà vu experiences did not correlate significantly with age at evaluation or education level among the patients with schizophrenia. Most characteristics of déjà vu experiences of the patients were comparable with those of the control subjects. However, the experiences of the patients tended to be longer and more monotonous. The patients often felt alert, oppressed, and disturbed by the experiences. They appeared to have the experiences under unpleasant mental or physical states. Their déjà vu experiences are not primarily different in nature from those of the nonclinical subjects. The decreased frequency of the experiences in the patients may suggest déjà vu experiences as nonpathologic phenomena.

Déjà vu experiences are defined as “any subjectively inappropriate impression of familiarity of a present experience with an undefined past” [1]. Experiences have often been attributed to specific psychopathologic phenomena (ie, memory dysfunction [2], dissociative symptoms [3], [4] and [5], and delusional symptoms [3] and [6]). Many investigators have suggested an increased incidence of déjà vu experiences among patients with a psychiatric disease [7], [8] and [9]. In contrast, some researchers [10] and [11] have considered déjà vu experiences as nonpathologic mental experiences because the experiences were also observed in nonclinical populations. Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disease with various psychopathologic symptoms, including delusions, dissociative symptoms, and cognitive dysfunction. If déjà vu experiences are associated with such pathologic symptoms, then the incidence of the experiences would increase in patients with schizophrenia as compared with nonclinical subjects. However, there have been only a few controlled studies on the déjà vu experiences of patients with schizophrenia [12] and [13], with a small sample size [1], [7] and [14]. Thus, we conducted a controlled study with a large number of subjects to examine the incidence and characteristics of déjà vu experiences in patients with schizophrenia.