| Hyperreligiosity | |
|---|---|
| Specialty | Psychiatry, Neurology |
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, [1] which interferes with work and social functioning. Hyperreligiosity may occur in a variety of disorders including epilepsy, [2] [3] psychotic disorders and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. [4] Hyperreligiosity is a symptom of Geschwind syndrome, which is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. [5]
Hyperreligiosity is characterized by an increased tendency to report supernatural or mystical experiences, spiritual delusions, rigid legalistic thoughts,[ citation needed ] and extravagant expression of piety. [6] [7] Hyperreligiosity may also include religious hallucinations. Hyperreligiosity can also be expressed as intense atheistic beliefs. [1]
Hyperreligiosity may be associated with epilepsy (in particular, temporal lobe epilepsy involving complex partial seizures), bipolar disorder, [8] frontotemporal lobar degeneration, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, [9] substance-induced psychosis, [10] and psychotic disorders more broadly. In those with seizure disorders, episodic hyperreligosity may occur during seizures [11] or postictally but is usually a stable personality feature occurring interictally. [3] In a small study, hyperreligiosity was associated with decreased right hippocampal volume relative to normo-religiosity. [6] Increased activity in the left temporal regions has been associated with hyperreligiosity in psychotic disorders. [12] Pharmacological evidence points towards dysfunction in the ventral dopaminergic pathway as explanatory of hyperreligiosity. [13]
Epilepsy related cases may respond to antiepileptics. [14]
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.
Clinically, they are said to have more mood swings, euphoria, grandiosity, hyperreligiosity, and multimodal hallucinations, and more prominent positive than negative symptoms.