she relives the same events over and over again as in “a day without end”!

In the movie A day without end, Bill Murray wakes up every day on February 2 and has to relive Groundhog Day over and over again. If this film is fiction, there is a psychiatric illness which causes the same symptoms, the impression of constantly reliving the same events. In 2020, an 84-year-old Dutch woman consulted a psychiatrist at a hospital in The Hague with disconcerting problems: she felt like she was reliving the same events. For her, the same broadcastsbroadcasts playing on repeat on TV. She also says that football matches, although live, are in reality rebroadcasts. His daughter tells him about an upcoming exhibition in a city museum, but the octogenarian assures him that she has already seen it. She approaches strangers on the street, thinking they are acquaintances. In short, this woman’s life has become a disturbing succession of “déjà vu” and confusion which worries those close to her.

A day without end

Having had epileptic seizures in the past, which can lead to nonsense speech, the doctors go in this direction and prescribe anti-epileptic drugs. These symptoms do not improve and changes in treatment do not change anything. Neuropsychiatric tests highlight lightlight slight depression and anxiety, but nothing that could explain these symptoms. After two years of follow-up, the patient’s condition has not changed much apart from work on accepting her condition. She was finally diagnosed with “already syndrome” of no known origin.

“Déjà-vé” is a very rare disease which, like “déjà vu”, belongs to the family of paramnesias. There are only 14 serious cases described in the scientific literature, the first being described in the 1920s. It was that of a young French soldier who believed he had already lived his entire life. He suffered from a neurological form of malariamalaria probably the cause of these symptoms. He was convinced that his brother’s marriage was just a rehearsal for another ceremony. Symptoms that left him feeling paranoia and constant agitation.

We’ve all experienced déjà vu, a mild, mild form of paramnesia, but déjà vu is considered a severe or serious form of these neurological disorders. There is no standard treatment for this disease; it is administered on a case-by-case basis depending on its etiology. Support for the patient and their loved ones to understand and accept the illness is essential.