An 80-year-old man is experiencing a rare condition called déjà vécu in which he sees everything in his daily life on repeat. It is said to be linked with Alzheimer’s disease.
The man sees the same TV shows, book pages, cars and the very same people on the street despite his family’s numerous attempts to convince him that it is just his imagination.
“Every day is a repeat of the day before,” the patient told researchers. “Wherever I go, the same people are on the side of the road, the same cars behind me with the same people in them. The same person gets out of the cars wearing the same clothes, carrying the same bags, saying the same things … nothing is new.”
The case study published in BMJ Case Reports highlights the man’s experiences. He even contacted a TV technician, thinking his TV was stuck on the same news, and believed his e-reader was broken because it kept showing the same book pages.
The cause of this condition is unknown but it is suspected by some scientists to be a problem with the hippocampus part of the brain. This part of the brain is responsible for converting and retaining short-term memories into long-term ones.
The man’s condition persisted for two years, and he experienced constant distress due to his distorted memories. However, he was able to continue living independently at home and taking care of himself.
The authors note that, two years after the onset of déjà vécu, the man’s “recollective confabulation symptoms remain pervasive and bothersome,” but “he continued to live at home and remained independent with self-care”.
Through analysis of the man’s cerebrospinal fluid, doctors discovered decreased levels of the protein amyloid beta-42 and elevated levels of the tau protein, which are indicators of Alzheimer’s disease.
