A Study of Depersonalization in Students
D. H. Myers, G. Grant
The British Journal of Psychiatry July 1, 1972 DOI: 10.1192/s0007125000001306 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key findings | Argues that depersonalization has largely escaped classification as a disease, which may explain why it is accepted as a pattern of disordered function that can arise from very different causes, including temporal lobe epilepsy, migraine, depression, LSD intoxication, schizophrenia, phobic anxiety, sleep deprivation, and the hypnagogic state, as well as in people with no other psychiatric disorder. |
Abstract
Some patterns of deranged function—epilepsy, schizophrenia—have been enshrined as diseases; others, such as depersonalization, have, by and large, escaped this fetter. This is perhaps why there has been no difficulty in accepting that depersonalization, being a pattern of disordered function, can occur in conditions of very different aetiology. It is seen in temporal lobe epilepsy (12), temporal lobe migrane (22), depression (8), LSD intoxication (20), schizophrenia (1), phobic anxiety states (15), sleep deprivation (2) and the hypnagogic state. Shorvon (21) reported cases of depersonalization occurring in the apparent absence of other psychiatric disorder, and Davison (4) investigated in detail seven such cases. Finally the occurrence of depersonalization in people not attending psychiatric or neurological clinics is now well attested (13, 5, 18, 6).