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【Neuro】23 rare behavioral and mental disorders

【Neuro】23 rare behavioral and mental disorders

 A simple sort-out syndrome of 23 rare behavioral and mental disorders. All information obtain from the internet.

1. Capgras syndrome

Syndrome: An irrational belief that someone they know or recognize has been replaced by an imposter.

Associated: Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Brain injury


2. Fregoli delusion 

Syndrome: A mistaken belief that some person currently present in the deluded person's environment (typically a stranger) is a familiar person in disguise. 

Associated: Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Brain injury


3. Cotard syndrome

Syndrome: A series of delusions that range from a belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to insisting that one has lost one's soul or is dead.

Associated: Dementia, Encephalopathy, Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Stroke, Subdural bleeding, Epilepsy, and Migraine.


4. Reduplicative paramnesia

Syndrome: Delusional belief that a place or location has been duplicated, existing in two or more places simultaneously, or that it has been 'relocated' to another site.

Associated: Neurodegenerative disorders, Stroke, Head trauma, or Psychiatric disorders


5. Alien Hand Syndrome

Syndrome: A phenomenon in which one hand is not under control of the mind. The person loses control of the hand, and it acts as if it has a mind of its own. 

Associated:  Neurosurgery, Tumor, Aneurysms, and Stroke


6. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS)

Syndrome: Rare neurological disorder characterized by distortions of visual perception, the body image, and the experience of time. Patient may see things smaller than they are, feel their body alter in size or experience any of the syndrome's numerous other symptoms.

Associated: Migraines, Head Trauma, or Viral Enecephalitis caused by Epstein–Barr virus infection.


7. Jerusalem syndrome

Syndrome:  A group of mental phenomena involving the presence of religiously-themed obsessive ideas, delusions, or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem. (Irrelevant with the patient's beliefs)


8. Paris Syndrome

Syndrome: A sense of disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting or going on vacation to Paris, who feel that Paris was not what they had expected. The condition is commonly viewed as a severe form of culture shock. (Mostly Japanese tourists)


9. Dissociative amnesia / Psychogenic amnesia

Syndrome: A condition in which a person cannot remember important information about his or her life. This forgetting may be limited to certain specific areas (thematic), or may include much of the person's life history and/or identity (general).

Associated: Overwhelming stress, genetic (inherited) connection in dissociative amnesia

Difference: 

Medical amnesia

  • Caused by medical problems, such as illnesses, strokes, or brain injuries
  • Recovering memories are rare and generally a slow and gradual process
  • Quite upset by their memory loss

Dissociative amnesia:

  • Caused by overwhelming stress
  • Recovery memories are suddenly and completely. 
    • may happen on its own, after being triggered by something in the person’s surroundings, or in therapy
  • Little concern over their amnesia


10. Foreign accent syndrome

Syndrome: Speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a “foreign” accent. 

Associated: Stroke or Traumatic brain injury


11. Stendhal syndrome

Syndrome: Mainly triggered by beautiful art, patients will show extraordinary anxiety, which will eventually erupt into panic, separation of personality, confusion and even hallucinations.


12. Diogenes Syndrome

Syndrome: A behavioral disorder that affects older adults. It occurs in both men and women. The main symptoms are excessive hoarding, dirty homes, and poor personal hygiene. People with Diogenes syndrome also withdraw from life and society.

Associated: Schizophrenia, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Depression, Dementia, Addiction, especially to alcohol


13. Munchausen syndrome

Classification: Munchausen syndrome, Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), Munchausen syndrome by internet

Syndrome:

  • Munchausen syndrome:
    • A psychological disorder where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves. Their main intention is to assume the "sick role" so that people care for them and they are the centre of attention.
  • Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP):
    • A mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability. 
  • Munchausen syndrome by internet:
    • Pretend sick and join the online groups for people with physical and mental/emotional health issues.  

Associated: A history of abuse or neglect as a child, or a history of frequent illnesses requiring hospitalization, experiencing the death of a loved one at a young age and abandonment


14. Apotemnophilia / Body integrity identity disorder (BIID)

Syndrome: Uncontrollable desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or to be paraplegic.

Associated: Dysfunction of the right parietal lobe


15. Khyâl cap / "Wind attacks" 

Syndrome: A cultural syndrome that a great fear that death might occur from bodily dysfunction. The attacks are centered on khyâl, a wind-like substance, rising in the body and the blood, causing a range of serious effects. (Mostly Cambodians in the United States and Cambodia)


16. Kufungisisa / “Thinking too much”

Syndrome: A cultural syndrome found among the Shona people of Zimbabwe.  It is considered to be causative to anxiety, depression, and somatic problems (e.g., “my heart is painful because I think too much”)


17. Clinical Lycanthropy

Syndrome: A rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is, an animal.

Associated: Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder or Clinical depression.


18. Depersonalization / Derealization Disorder

Syndrome: Persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that observing oneself from outside one's body or have a sense that things around oneself aren't real, or both.

Associated: Interpersonal trauma such as childhood abuse


19. Amok ('Running Amok')/Berserker

Syndrome: An unpremeditated violent, disorderly, or homicidal rage directed against other objects or persons. (A cultural syndrome found in Southeast Asia and Scandinavia)

Associated: Amnesia and exhaustion; Incited by a perceived or actual insult; Chronic psychotic illness


20. Kluver-Bucy Syndrome

Syndrome: Inappropriate sexual behaviors, memory loss and the urge to put various objects in one’s mouth

Associated: Damage to both of the anterior temporal lobes of the brain


21. Conversion Disorder

Syndrome: Experiences blindness, paralysis, or other symptoms affecting the nervous system that cannot be explained solely by a physical illness or injury.

Associated: A period of emotional or physical distress or psychological conflict.


22. Psychogenic purpura / Gardner-Diamond syndrome / autoerythrocyte sensitization / painful bruising syndrome

Syndrome: Develop unexplained painful bruises, mostly on the extremities and/or face, during times of stress

Associated: Extreme stressors and history of mental illness


23. Mietens-Weber Syndrome

Syndrome: Rarest disease that patient have corneal opacity, nystagmus, flexion contracture of the elbows, growth failure, and mental retardation


Related topic: 【Pharmacology】Antidepressants


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