People with ganser syndrome mimic behavior that is typical of a mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Gansers synd rome is usually sudden in onset and, like malingering, seems to arise in response to an opportunity for personal gain or the avoidance of some responsibility. This is the website of chicago postpunk, no wave, noise chicago band ganser. Ganser syndrome is an uncommon disorder, particularly in children. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. The syndrome has also been called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome. Bensons syndrome posterior cortical atrophy alzheimers disease agnosia apraxia dementia disease name and synonyms posterior cortical atrophy pca bensons syndrome, visual variant of alzheimers disease ad, progressive agnosia and apraxia. Ganser syndrome, as it is now known, has been the subject of much debate since this original paper. I feel that many of the names that ganser syndrome is also known as in the first paragraph are unfounded. Here, we present a 25year followup study on a case of lpsas resulting from bilateral pallidal lesions. Ganser symptoms in a chinese speaking corticobasal syndrome cbs patient dear editor, ganser syndrome was. It is common among prisoners awaiting trial especially when they believe they are being watched. Gansers syndrome person, personality, definition, description. Ganser syndrome was described and named after sigbert josef maria ganser who was a german psychiatrist.
Its also known as imposter syndrome or capgras delusion. However, whilst comorbid mental illness is present in some instances, the ganser syndrome complex was found to occur commonly in the absence of other mental. Psychosis is characterized by a radical change in personality and a distorted. Ganserlike syndrome after loss of psychic selfactivation. The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans daniel amen tedxorangecoast duration. In the century since ganser syndrome was first described, there has been considerable debate concerning its classification. The patient will offer nearly correct replies when asked questions about facts of common knowledge, such as the number of days in a year, the number of months in a year. Pdf gansers syndrome is a rare and controversial condition, whose main and most striking feature is the production of approximate answers.
Neurologists and other researchers from europe and the us. The syndrome has at various times been regarded as a form of malingering, a psychotic disorder, a histrionic disorder, and an organic disorder. The key feature of gansers syndrome includes approximate answers to simple questions. In some cases, more than one premorbid vulnerability was documented. Ganser syndrome gahnser, a psychoticlike condition, without the. Ganser syndrome, which is briefly described as a dissociative disorder nos in the dsmiv is a poorly understood and often overlooked clinical phenomenon. Know the causes, symptoms, treatment and diagnosis of ganser syndrome. Although the formulation of these criteria have been valuable in educating people in the field, their use as a tool has been somewhat limited due to the unclear nature of which criteria are necessary for the. Ganser syndrome is a form of mental disorder in which the affected individual acts in a conscious manner in such as a way that he or she is terrible sick or unwell to gain attention when in fact the individual is perfectly normal.
Dec 23, 2015 ganser s syndrome is said to be very rare with fewer than 100 cases in the literature. Ganser syndrome is a rare type of condition in which a person deliberately and consciously acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick. Tourette syndrome cdc pdf cdc pdf 770 kb, 2 pages overview of ts and what cdc is doing about ts. Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong. Severe acute respiratory syndrome sars coronavirus sarscov is a novel virus that caused the.
There are episodic reports in the literature of ganser syndrome in patients with head trauma or strokes. Tics and tourette syndrome cdc pdf cdc pdf 629 kb, 2 pages learn about tics and tourette syndrome and what you can do. The ganser syndrome is rare in children and in adolescents. Case report of ganser syndrome in a 14yearold girl. While dsmiv classifies ganser syndrome as a dissociative disorder, its etiology continues to be debated.
Questions about its etiology, definition, and classification, as well as its status as a true mental illness versus a specific form of malingering has been the subject of multiple journal articles and book chapters. The syndrome has also been called nonsense syndrome. The nosological conception of ganser syndrome gs has evolved as the hysterical etiopathogenesis has been examined against psychosis, malingering. Ganzer syndrome definition of ganzer syndrome by medical. A pattern of fraudulent and exaggerated simulation of psychiatric behaviour, usually detectable by the expert as revealing the subjects notion of madness rather than any recognized psychiatric pattern. Six cases of ganser s syndrome are described, one occurring in a male prisoner, 5 occurring in civilian patients of whom 4 were women and one a man. Jul 31, 2004 the diagnosis of ganser s syndrome is often problematic, especially in view of the frequency with which the symptom of approximate answers arises in other psychiatric disorders. The predisposing and triggering factors of ganser syndrome are poorly. Prion disease is a wellcategorized neurological illness due to aggregation of malformed peptides. In this article, well give you a brief overview of what the disorder is and what its characteristics are.
Ganser syndrome has also been found to be comorbid with other. Ganser syndrome uncountable a rare stressinduced dissociative disorder characterized by giving nonsensical answers to questions. Tourette syndrome and public health cdc pdf 410 kb, 6 pages bridging the gap between public health and ts. In august 1973 four employees of sveriges kreditbank were held hostage in the banks vault for six days. A case of the ganser syndrome in a 14yearold girl, with three of the four essential features, is presented. He had noted a syndrome in three prisoners, the features of which included approximate answers to simple questions, perceptual abnormalities such as visual and auditory hallucinations, clouding of consciousness, and symptoms of somatic conversion. Ganser definition of ganser by the free dictionary. Ganser liftsysteme platform stairlift, inclined lift. American journal of forensic psychology, 183, 3762. Etiological, epidemiological and diagnostic issues have never been resolved for ganser s syndrome.
Since it is not a common mental illness, not even 100 cases have been reported, according to a case study published by the american academy of child and adolescent. It has also been described in a 12 year old boy with a head injury. Later writers struggled to make sense of the symptom approximate answers, coining terms such as vorbeireden meaning to talk at crossed purposes and paralogia. Among the dissociative disorders, ganser syndrome is an uncommon form that has as central symptom the giving of approximate answers to questions vorbeireden. What is ganser syndromecausessymptomstreatmentdiagnosis. It is characterized by the individual mimicking behavior they think is typical of a psychosis.
We present the first report of a young girl aged 7 who was diagnosed independently as having both gts and ganser syndrome and who was otherwise well and remained well and improved at followup 8 years later. Malingered intentionally wrong, but often approximate, answers in an apparent effort to simulate psychosis. The syndrome was originally described in male prisoners with brain injuries. Gansers syndrome is diagnosed on the basis of four clinical features, all of which are required, although not simultaneously panel. Questions about its etiology, definition, and classification, as well as its status as a true mental illness versus a specific form of malingering has been the subject of. People who experience this syndrome will have an irrational belief that. Three patients who are described in detail developed the syndrome intercurrently during other serious psychiatric illnesses. Ganser syndrome ganser s syndrome, hysterical pseudodementia, nonsense syndrome, prison psychosis, syndrome of approximate answers is a kind of. Very few data are available on the longterm changes in the cognitive abilities of patients with loss of psychic selfactivation syndrome lpsas. Some precipitating stressors have been reported and in other cases patients have had organic brain syndrome. Gansers syndrome definition of gansers syndrome by. The diagnosis of ganser syndrome in the practice of forensic psychology.
The precise incidence is not known, as most of the recorded cases in the literature describe only individual patients and criteria are lax. Ganser syndrome is a disorder that is extremely rare and also goes by the names pseudodementia, nonsense syndrome, hysterical pseudodementia, syndrome of approximate answers, etc. The ganser syndrome american journal of psychiatry. Ganser syndrome with workrelated onset in a patient with. Current classification systems categorise it as a dissociative disorder, the symptoms of which are judged as psychogenic in origin. The identification of malingering, in order to gain an obvious benefit such as accommodation, is important although not nearly as straightforward as it might seem. Mar 21, 2018 ganser syndrome is a form of mental disorder in which the affected individual acts in a conscious manner in such as a way that he or she is terrible sick or unwell to gain attention when in fact the individual is perfectly normal. It is characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions or doing things incorrectly, other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. Gansers syndrome is a rare and controversial condition, whose main and most striking feature is the production of approximate answers or near misses to very simple questions. The diagnosis of ganser syndrome in the practice of forensic. A substantial proportion of the recently published cases of dissociative disorders have a background of immigration fujiwara et al. Ganser syndrome synonyms, ganser syndrome antonyms. Ganser synonyms, ganser pronunciation, ganser translation, english dictionary definition of ganser. Ganser symptoms in a chinese speaking corticobasal syndrome.
Sigbert ganser first described the syndrome while working at a penal institution in halle, germany. Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. Sometimes called the syndrome of approximate answers, ganser s syndrome is most often seen in male prisoners. Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder previously classified as a factitious disorder. Ganser s syndrome is a rare and controversial condition, whose main and most striking feature is the production of approximate answers or near misses to very simple questions. This report raises the possibility of the ganser syndrome as a manifestation of a. Ganser syndrome, trance logic, and the question of malingering.
Stockholm syndrome, psychological response wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands the name of the syndrome is derived from a botched bank robbery in stockholm, sweden. Later writers struggled to make sense of the symptom approximate answers, coining terms such as vorbeireden meaning to talk at. After rapid resolution in two weeks, ganser symptoms reappear seven months later accompanied, this second time, by previous depressive symptoms. Oct 01, 2019 ganser syndrome, as it is now known, has been the subject of much debate since this original paper. This symptom was originally described by sigbert ganser in 1897 in prisoners on remand and labeled vorbeigehen to pass by, although the term vorbeireden. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus as an agent. Capgras syndrome and other delusional misidentification syndromes. In support of the theory that ganser syndrome is a manifestation of malingering. The diagnosis of ganser syndrome in the practice of. Ganser syndrome continues to be a rare and widely misunderstood condition. Abstract ganser syndrome, which is briefly described as a dissociative disorder nos in the dsmiv is a poorly understood and often overlooked clinical phenomenon. Resnick cited the findings of anderson et al,1 who found that normal controls, organic braindamaged patients, patients with pseudodementia, and experimental subjects asked to simulate a mental illness all evidenced approximate answers. In the past, this was so much the case that early clinicians called the syndrome prison psychosis, despite the fact that it is not a true psychosis. Ganser s syndrome is more common in men, with a probable maletofemale ratio of 3 or 4.
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