Ganser Phenomenon

Ganser Phenomenon

The Ganser phenomenon consists of giving approximate answers to questions which can at times verge on the absurd (Q: "How many legs does a cow have?"; A: "Three"), also known as paralogia or vor-beireden. This may occur in psychiatric disease, such as depression, schizophrenia, and malingering, and sometimes in neurological disease (head injury, epilepsy). A Ganser syndrome of hallucinations, conversion disorder, cognitive disorientation and approximate answers is also described but of uncertain nosology.

References

Carney MW. Ganser syndrome and its management. British Journal ofPsychiatry 1987; 151: 697-700
Enoch MD, Ball HN. Uncommon psychiatric syndromes (4th edition). London: Arnold, 2001: 74-94