Ganser syndrome

Ganser syndrome is an uncommon dissociative disorder formerly classified as a factitious disorder. It is characterized by:

• ridiculous or wrong answers to questions
• doing things incorrectly,
• other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder,
• often with visual pseudo hallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness.

It is also at times called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome, syndrome of approximate answers, pseudodementia or prison psychosis. This last name, prison psychosis, is occasionally used because the syndrome occurs most repeatedly in prison inmates, wherever it may represent an endeavor to gain leniency from prison or court officials.

Ganser syndrome is a tremendously exceptional variation of dissociative disorder. It is a response to tremendous stress and the patient by this means suffers from approximation or giving meaningless answers to trouble-free questions that are asked. The syndrome can at times be diagnosed as just malingering; conversely, it is more often defined as dissociative disorder.

Symptoms consist of a clouding of consciousness, somatic conversion symptoms, confusion, and stress, loss of personal identity, echolalia, and echopraxia. The emotional symptoms generally bear a resemblance to the patient's sense of mental illness rather than any recognized category. Individuals also give approximate answers to simple questions. For example, "How many legs does a cat has?" the answer that is given by the subject may be ‘3’.

The syndrome may perhaps take place in persons with other mental disorders such as schizophrenia, depressive disorders, toxic states, paresis, alcohol use disorders and factitious disorders. EEG data does not put forward any specific organic cause.

Diagnosing Ganser syndrome is very tricky, not only for the reason that some measure of untruthfulness is concerned but also since it is very rare. More often than not when giving wrong answers, they are only to some extent off, showing that the personage has understood the question. For illustration, when asked how many legs a camel has they might say, "5." In addition, even though the subjects appear puzzled in their answers, in other respects they appear to be aware of their surroundings.

Questions:

• What is the treatment required to treat Ganser syndrome?
• Which age group is affected the most by Ganser syndrome?