Hyperreligiosity
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Hyperreligiosity (also known as extreme religiosity) is a psychiatric disturbance in which a person experiences intense religious beliefs or episodes that interfere with normal functioning. Hyperreligiosity generally includes abnormal beliefs and a focus on religious content or even atheistic content, which interferes with work and social functioning. Hyperreligiosity may occur in a variety of disorders including epilepsy,{{cite journal|last1=Tucker|first1=D. M.|last2=Novelly|first2=R. A.|last3=Walker|first3=P. J.|title=Hyperreligiosity in temporal lobe epilepsy: redefining the relationship|journal=The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease|date=1 March 1987|volume=175|issue=3|pages=181–184|pmid=3819715|issn=0022-3018|doi=10.1097/00005053-198703000-00010}}{{cite journal|last1=Ogata|first1=Akira|last2=Miyakawa|first2=Taihei|title=Religious experiences in epileptic patients with a focus on ictus-related episodes|journal=Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences|date=1 May 1998|volume=52|issue=3|pages=321–325|doi=10.1046/j.1440-1819.1998.00397.x|pmid=9681585|language=en|issn=1440-1819|doi-access=}} psychotic disorders and frontotemporal lobar degeneration.{{cite journal|last1=Chan|first1=Dennis|last2=Anderson|first2=Valerie|last3=Pijnenburg|first3=Yolande|last4=Whitwell|first4=Jennifer|last5=Barnes|first5=Jo|last6=Scahill|first6=Rachael|last7=Stevens|first7=John M.|last8=Barkhof|first8=Frederik|last9=Scheltens|first9=Philip|author10-link=Martin Rossor|last10=Rossor|first10=Martin N.|last11=Fox|first11=Nick C.|title=The clinical profile of right temporal lobe atrophy|journal=Brain|date=1 May 2009|volume=132|issue=Pt 5|pages=1287–1298|doi=10.1093/brain/awp037|pmid=19297506|issn=1460-2156|doi-access=free}} Hyperreligiosity is a symptom of Geschwind syndrome, which is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy.{{cite journal | last1=Veronelli | first1=Laura | last2=Makaretz | first2=Sara J. | last3=Quimby | first3=Megan | last4=Dickerson | first4=Bradford C. | last5=Collins | first5=Jessica A. | title=Geschwind Syndrome in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: Neuroanatomical and neuropsychological features over 9 years | journal=Cortex | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=94 | year=2017 | issn=0010-9452 | doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2017.06.003 | pages=27–38| pmid=28711815 | pmc=5565695 }}
Signs and symptoms
Hyperreligiosity is characterized by an increased tendency to report supernatural or mystical experiences, spiritual delusions, rigid legalistic thoughts,{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} and extravagant expression of piety.{{cite journal|last1=Wuerfel|first1=J.|last2=Krishnamoorthy|first2=E. S.|last3=Brown|first3=R. J.|last4=Lemieux|first4=L.|last5=Koepp|first5=M.|last6=Elst|first6=L. Tebartz van|last7=Trimble|first7=M. R.|title=Religiosity is associated with hippocampal but not amygdala volumes in patients with refractory epilepsy|journal=Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry|date=1 April 2004|volume=75|issue=4|pages=640–642|pmid=15026516 |doi=10.1136/jnnp.2003.06973|url= |language=en|issn=1468-330X|pmc=1739034}}{{cite book|last=LaPlante|first=Eve|title=Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a Medical, Historical, and Artistic Phenomenon|date=22 March 2016|publisher=Open Road Distribution|language=English|isbn=9781504032773|page=181}} Hyperreligiosity may also include religious hallucinations. Hyperreligiosity can also be expressed as intense atheistic beliefs.{{cite book|last1=Heilman|first1=Kenneth M.|last2=Valenstein|first2=Edward |title=Clinical Neuropsychology|date=13 October 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=English|isbn=9780195384871|page=488|quote=Studies that claim to show no difference in emotional makeup between temporal lobe and other epileptic patients (Guerrant et al., 1962; Stevens, 1966) have been reinterpreted (Blumer, 1975) to indicate that there is, in fact, a difference: those with temporal lobe epilepsy are more likely to have more serious forms of emotional disturbance. This "typical personality" of temporal lobe epileptic patient has been described in roughly similar terms over many years (Blumer & Benson, 1975; Geschwind, 1975, 1977; Blumer, 1999; Devinsky & Schachter, 2009). These patients are said to have a deepening of emotions; they ascribe great significance to commonplace events. This can be manifested as a tendency to take a cosmic view; hyperreligiosity (or intensely professed atheism) is said to be common.}}
Pathophysiology and cause
Hyperreligiosity may be associated with epilepsy (in particular, temporal lobe epilepsy involving complex partial seizures), bipolar disorder,{{cite journal|title= Hyperreligiosity in Psychotic Disorders|journal= The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease|volume=182|issue=5|pages=302–304|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12637755|language=en|doi=10.1097/00005053-199405000-00009|pmid=10678313|year=1994|last1=Brewerton|first1=Timothy D.}} frontotemporal lobar degeneration, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis,{{cite journal|last1=Kuppuswamy|first1=PS|last2=Takala|first2=CR|last3=Sola|first3=CL|title=Management of psychiatric symptoms in anti-NMDAR encephalitis: a case series, literature review and future directions.|journal=General Hospital Psychiatry|date=2014|volume=36|issue=4|pages=388–91|doi=10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2014.02.010|pmid=24731834}} substance-induced psychosis,{{cite book|last1=Virginia|first1=Sadock|last2=Benjamin|first2=Sadock|last3=Pedro|first3=Ruiz|title=Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry|isbn=978-1451100471|edition=10th|quote=Clinically, they are said to have more mood swings, euphoria, grandiosity, hyperreligiosity, and multimodal hallucinations, and more prominent positive than negative symptoms.|year=2017|publisher=Wolters Kluwer }} and psychotic disorders more broadly. In those with seizure disorders, episodic hyperreligosity may occur during seizures{{cite journal|last1=Garcia-Santibanez|first1=Rocio|last2=Sarva|first2=Harini|title=Isolated Hyperreligiosity in a Patient with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy|journal=Case Reports in Neurological Medicine|date=1 January 2015|volume=2015|pages=235856|doi=10.1155/2015/235856|pmid=26351599|pmc=4550801|issn=2090-6668 |doi-access=free }} or postictally but is usually a stable personality feature occurring interictally. In a small study, hyperreligiosity was associated with decreased right hippocampal volume relative to normo-religiosity. Increased activity in the left temporal regions has been associated with hyperreligiosity in psychotic disorders.{{cite thesis |last1=Bouman |first1=Daniëlle |title=The neurobiological basis of hyper-religiosity |publisher=Tilburg University |type=Bachelor thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience |url=http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=114836 }} Pharmacological evidence points towards dysfunction in the ventral dopaminergic pathway as explanatory of hyperreligiosity.{{cite journal|last1=Previc|first1=FH|title=The role of the extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity.|journal=Consciousness and Cognition|date=September 2006|volume=15|issue=3|pages=500–39|doi=10.1016/j.concog.2005.09.009|pmid=16439158}}
Treatment
See also
References
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