Ganser's syndrome: A nosographic approach

Abstract

Introduction

Ganser described a peculiar hysterical state, called Ganser's syndrome. This syndrome raises many etiological and psychopathological unresolved issues.

Objectives

This article proposes to present the place of the Ganser's syndrome in the current nosographic framework throw the analyse of a clinical case and a literature review.

Observation

A 28-year-old man was admitted for fugue and memory loss. This symptomatology evolves since three days after an emotional conflict.

He complained from headache. He showed incoherent speech with approximate responses, lability, anxiety, auditory hallucinations, unstructured mild delusional ideation, cognitive difficulties, altered sleep-wake rhythm and anorexia.

Memory gaps were observed with difficulties in abstract thinking.

Symptoms totally regressed after one week under anxiolytic treatment.

Comments

Ganser's syndrome was evoked in the presence of suggestive symptoms: presence of a stressor factor, cardinal symptoms (approximate answers), associated symptoms (hallucinations + confusion + somatoform symptoms) and rapid restitution. Ganser considered this syndrome as a special case of crepuscular state, belonging to hysteria. Ganser's syndrome was included in DSM-III but located in factitious disorders against Ganser's position. In DSM-IV, it was positioned in unspecified dissociative disorders. In DSM-5, its place was reduced to a few words in the end of the introduction of dissociative disorders, and was no longer used as dissociative disorder.

Conclusion

Although Ganser's syndrome is not part of current diagnostic criteria for dissociative disorders, clinical descriptions of Ganser remain of clinical of interest by nosographic questions they have raised, in particular the link between simulation, psychiatric disorder and non psychiatric disorder.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.