Paramnesic multiplication of autobiographical memory as a manifestation of interictal psychosis

This report describes a male patient with temporal lobe epilepsy who developed a persistent paranoid-hallucinatory state at the age of 23. The essential feature of his delusion was that he had repeatedly lived part of his life, namely between the ages of 21 and 25 years. The patient repeatedly attempted suicide to escape the endless repetition. His paramnesia has some similarity with a déjà vu phenomenon, which is a common ictal manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, while only a sense of vague familiarity is evoked in a déjà vu phenomenon, conscious recollection is experienced during his paramnesia. We attempted to explain the pathophysiological mechanism of the patient's paramnesia in the framework of the current neurobiological theory of human memory.