Abstract and Introduction
Patients with depersonalization disorder experience episodes in which they have a feeling of detachment from themselves. Symptoms of depersonalization may occur in individuals who have other mental disorders, or who have various medical conditions, or who have taken certain medications. A woman developed depersonalization symptoms after initiation of minocycline therapy. Her symptoms ceased after treatment was stopped and recurred when she restarted the drug. Medications that have been associated with causing symptoms of depersonalization are presented and the postulated pathogenesis by which some of these drugs induced depersonalization symptoms is discussed. Medication-associated depersonalization symptoms typically resolve once the inducing drug has been withdrawn.
Psychiatric syndromes that consist of disruptions of aspects of consciousness, environmental awareness, identity, memory, or motor behavior are classified as dissociative disorders.[1]Depersonalization disorder is a dissociative disorder characterized by persistent or recurrent episodes in which the individual has a feeling of detachment or estrangement from one's self. Although their reality testing remains intact, the person may feel like they are living in a dream or like an automation. Depersonalization disorder cannot be diagnosed if it is part of another psychiatric condition or if it is secondary to a medical disorder or if it is caused by a drug.
