The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2013 , Vol 55 , Num 5
Persistent déjà vu associated with temporal lobe epilepsy in an adolescent
Divisions of 1Adolescent Medicine, and 2Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University Faculty of
Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail: sinemhusnu@yahoo.com
The term déjà vu is used to refer to the feeling of having already witnessed
or experienced a current situation, despite the exact circumstances of the prior
encounter being unclear. Although the déjà vu experience may be a benign
occurrence, it may also be one of the first warning signs of a neurological
event such as temporal lobe epilepsy.
Symptoms of epilepsy may be difficult to recognize in children and adolescents, as not all seizures involve obvious convulsions. Sometimes symptoms are far more subtle, and these "hidden signs" may appear to fall within the range of normal childhood behavior, or in an adolescent, may be misinterpreted as psychological problems. We describe here an adolescent diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy who experienced persistent déjà vu at a young age. This case presents an interesting finding, as it shows that young adolescents are able to describe in detail an aura such as déjà vu that will allow physicians to identify the disorder much earlier.
Keywords : déjà vu, temporal lobe epilepsy, adolescence.