Deja Vu

Déjà Vu

Déjà vu (literally "already seen") is a subjective inappropriate impression of familiarity for a present experience in relation to an undefined past. However, since the term has passed into the vernacular, not every patient complaining of "déjà vu" has a pathological problem. The term may be used colloquially to indicate familiar events or experiences. Recurrent hallucinations or vivid dream-like imagery may also enter the differential diagnosis.

Epileptic déjà vu may last longer and be more frequent, and may be associated with other features, such as depersonalization and derealization, strong emotion, such as fear, epigastric aura, or olfactory hallucinations. Epileptic déjà vu is a complex aura of focal onset epilepsy; specifically, it is indicative of temporal lobe onset of seizures, and is said by some authors to be the only epileptic aura of reliable lateralizing significance (right). Déjà vécu ("already lived") has been used to denote a broader experience than déjà vu but the clinical implications are similar.
Déjà vu may also occur with psychiatric illness, such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.

References

Warren-Gash C, Zeman A. Déjà vu. Practical Neurology 2003; 3: 106-109

Cross References

Aura; Hallucination; Jamais vu